A new ninja in town
by brightspark10
Summary: kakaXoc Unlike the Chunin exams, the jonin exams are tougher. A whole new bunch of weirdos come to fight for the chance to become jonins, along with a girl who seems to know the hokage and gets to know kakashi a lot better.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer; I do not own any of the naruto characters although I wish I did. )

Read and review.

A letter arrived for Tsunade informing her that soon the jounin exams would take place and with the arrival of the jounin exams, chuunins from all the other hidden villages would gather in Konoha to participate. And as always the worse was to be expected, after all, the last set of exams ended up with Orochimaru attacking and leaving the village in tatters.

Sighing, Tsunade picked up another glass of whiskey and downed it. Thinking that the only good part of the exams was that her old prodigy would be attending, it had been 3 years since the last time they had met, it was under some difficult circumstances they had decided to part.

Shizune was now reciting to her a list of duties which she would have to complete, "Shizune, maybe we could take a nice little stroll today, since it's so nice outside." Tsunade said cheerfully, trying to escape the stack of paperwork which stood 5ft high on her desk.

"NO! You're not getting out of this one! You're going to stay here and finish your work!" Shizune said heartlessly and continued with the list.

"I can't wait until she gets here." Sighed Tsunade, "You were always much more fun when she was around."

Shizune looked up from the list, remembering the times when they were together and they had nothing to worry about, but she quickly snapped out of it. "Well you can have all the fun you want when she arrives." Shizune replied, "But for now GET BACK TO WORK! NO SLACKING!"

Tsunade did a little sweat drop and got back to work as told, in silence. Until a knock came at the door to her office, 3 men entered the office; 2 jounins and a Chuunin; one in a green stretchy jump suit with dark hair which stuck to his forehead, the Konoha sign around his waist.

The second was the strangest looking one, even though it is hard to be called strange when standing next to the guy in the green jump suit. He had silver hair which was unruly and spiked up, the Konoha sign hid his left eye and a mask covered the rest of his face, he was dressed in navy blue loose fitting clothes with a green flak vest and was reading a copy of "Icha Icha Paradise".

The last had dark hair also tied up in a pony tail, with a scar across his face, dressed similar to the second.

"What's wrong? Are the perimeters set? How are the safety precautions? I don't want another disaster like last time." Tsunade said in a bored tone.

"All safety precautions and perimeters are fine." Said the man with the pony tail, "We were just wondering if you had any other orders before the candidates for the jounin exams from the other hidden villages arrive tomorrow."

"No other orders seem necessary, just do your patrols and don't let anyone suspicious into the village." Tsunade ordered, "And be careful, these are not Genins like last time, the people who are coming may be stronger than most jounins."

With those last words they disappeared.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer; I do not own any of the naruto characters although I wish I did. )

Read and review.

Morning arrived too early for Hatake Kakashi; he hit his alarm clock and tried to sleep in until he remembered that today was the arrival of the candidates for the Jonin exams! He quickly got dressed and ran out the door of his small apartment. This was something which he couldn't be late for.

Gai and Iruka and an assortment of other Jonins and chunins were already there, waiting for Kakashi.

"Good morning my ETERNAL RIVAL, you are on time for once!" Said Gai, dressed up in his usual green jump suit.

"Good morning Gai, good morning Iruka." Said Kakashi sleepily.

"Good morning Kakashi- Sensei." Iruka was a chunin and was dressed in black and grey, hair tied back, ready for the action of today.

"I will find more suspicious characters than you KAKASHI! If I lose to you I will do 500 laps around the village!" exclaimed Gai, doing his nice guy pose, which was a thumbs up and a teeth sparkle.

"What? I wasn't listening to what you were saying." Kakashi said with his nose in his favourite copy of 'Icha Icha paradise' before walking off to patrol the perimeters of the village, leaving Gai babbling on about his youthful and hip attitude and such.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Kakashi walked to the gates of the village where some of the candidates for the exams were just arriving, none looked particularly suspicious or strong. Each handed the guards at the gate their identification and where motioned into the village. He looked around; it seemed that every village had candidates for the exams.

As he walked into the forests leaving the gates behind, his walkie-talkie sounded, with the voice of Iruka. "Come quickly we need backup! North forests of Kono-." He was cut off, that meant something bad has happened.

"Gai did u hear Iruka!" Kakashi shouted into his walkie-talkie whilst heading north.

"Yes I did! I'm heading there now." Confirmed Gai.

He heard the sound of metal clashing and came to a stop behind a tree looking into the clearing where a masked figure stood, hooded and covered in a long coat. Anko and Gai were already there in defensive stance clearly ready to fight, and Asuma was helping Iruka up from the floor.

"Who are you? And what are you doing here!" Said Anko with a deadly tone in her voice, "Are you working for Orochimaru!"

"WHAT! I would never work for that scumbag!" Shouted the masked person in disgust.

"That's what you would say!" Anko shouted back, letting her emotions and hatred for Orochimaru control her actions. She ran at the intruder, a kunai in each hand, but once she reached her target the person disappeared and reappeared behind her and with a swift kick, sent her flying into a nearby tree.

"Look calm down, I'm only here to take part in the Jonin exams." Said the stranger desperately.

Kakashi decided this was the time to show himself, "You're stronger than most chunins who want to take this exam, how do we know that you're not lying?" He said calmly not allowing his emotions show, _this guy is strong, to take out Anko with one kick._

The figure stood staring at the Konoha Jonin, _great! Another one, how long has he been there? I can't believe I didn't sense him sooner. _

"We should just knock him out and take him to the hokage." Said Asuma from behind with Iruka, Iruka seemed to have recovered a little.

"I must warn you that if you attack me, then I will attack back, no matter if you're from konoha." Warned the stranger with a calm voice.

"You're planning to fight all of us at once?" Laughed Gai, "you must be stupid; you can't beat all of us."

Gai ran and threw kicks and punches in his taijutsu style, yet each punch and kick was evaded with ease, _this guy is pretty good, but not good enough, _thought Gai, increasing his speed and landing a punch in the strangers' stomach, he smirked until he realised that the body of the stranger turned into a log.

Kakashi saw the figure appear behind Gai and punched him in the stomach making him kneel over and slump onto the ground. Kakashi threw his shuriken at the figure which disappeared then reappeared next to him and kicked him which caused him to hit into a tree. _This guy is really good at close combat and has amazing strength; I'm not sure if even Gai can out move him. He's toying with us._

Kakashi had to come up with a plan quick, another hit from this stranger could cause serious damage. If he could just distract him for a few seconds then he could use his jutsu to attack.

"STOP!" Hearing the voice of his hokage, he noticed the stranger turned all his attention away from him, this was the opportunity that he was looking for, he quickly did the seals for the fire jutsu with his hands, and sent a blast of fire at his opponent.

Seeing the ball of fire, there was no way to evade it, the only way was to defend and shield from it. The figure crossed his arms and prepared for the impact.

"I SAID STOP!" Tsunade shouted at Kakashi, both looking into the smoke which was all that was left of the fire. Gai walked over to the hokage and his eternal rival, and looked into the smoke. A figure stood there still in a defensive position with arms protecting the face. The mask had been burned away, and so was most of the coat that the figure was wearing.

"Maaya?" said Tsunade with concern, "are you alright?"

The stranger looked up to reveal the face of a girl, Kakashi and Gai stared at the girl as she blinked and shook the ash (which was all that was left of the coat) away from her.

"Hi Tsunade" she smiled softy, "I think I'm okay."

Kakashi looked at her innocent face which included beautiful big brown eyes which some of her hair fell into, gentle lips and soft smile. The surprise must have shown in his face because the girl spoke to him.

"I wasn't what you expected, right?" She said whilst laughing, and pulling her long black hair away from her face whilst inspecting the split ends which the last attack had caused. Then she turned back to Tsunade.

Kakashi looked at Gai; he looked as shocked as he was to begin with but then his eyes turned to hearts, and ran over to the girl who was talking to Tsunade, taking her hand in his.

"I am so sorry for attacking you! If I had known then I would have never hurt a woman who possessed such beauty and whose youth shines like the sun." Gai started to kiss her hand and wouldn't let go.

"Erm… that's okay, I did attack you too…." Maaya said, a sweat drop forming on her head whilst trying to pry her hand away from Gai, he was seriously giving her the creeps.

"GAI! Get a grip! And let go of her!" Tsunade shouted, as Gai immediately let go and Maaya took a deep breathe of relief to have her hand back.

Kakashi watch the scene in disbelief, _who was this girl? She seems to know Tsunade. _He walked over to them, noticing that Asuma, Iruka and Anko still looked a little cautious, yet at least they were alive.

She smiled at him as he approached causing him to blush, _she has a beautiful smile, and okay this is not the time to be thinking this! STOP THINKING! _ She was the one who spoke first.

"I'm really sorry for the fighting thing, I didn't mean to be so rough, and I should have tried to explain my situation better, I guess it was the Orochimaru thing that pushed me over the edge." She apologized to all of them, bowing her head slightly, with a sincere tone in her voice.

"This is Maaya Hayashi, she used to be my apprentice and I have invited her to come join the shinobi of konoha, providing she passes the test." Tsunade said while putting an arm around Maaya and giving her a quick hug, they were practically sisters, definitely much more than the apprentice/ teacher labels they had.

"Maaya, this is Kakashi Hatake, Gai Maito, Iruka Umino, Anko Mitarashi and Asuma Sarutobi." Tsunade introduced each of them while some stuck out their hand to shake others looked her over suspiciously.

Tsunade looked at the bunch of ninjas and sighed then looked at Maaya, "well we better get back because the chunins which have just arrived will be waiting for us." And without another word they disappeared.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer; I do not own any of the naruto characters although I wish I did. )

Read and review.

Maaya followed Tsunade down the corridors of the hokage's building, as she walked she noticed that she was getting strange glances from the ninja's of konoha, _they probably heard of what happened, sigh, well this was definitely not the first impression I wanted to make._

"Don't worry; the people of konoha are more understanding than you think." Tsunade felt her anxiety and comforted her.

"Thanks"

"Though I didn't know you had gotten so strong, you have improved a lot in 3 years."

"I've been through a lot in 3 years, if I didn't get stronger I would have not survive." Maaya looked at the feet while walking, trying to block out the terrible memories of the last years, she came here to start a new life.

Tsunade glanced back at her and decided to change the subject. "Shizune and Ton Ton have missed you."

"How are they?"

"Doing great, Shizune is as bossy as usual and I think Ton Ton might be getting fatter."

"I bet you're just slacking off from the work." Maaya said with a laugh.

"We're here." Tsunade opened the door to a room and walked into it, closely followed by Maaya.

The 5 ninjas sat in a bar, discussing the events of the day. Gai was babbling about how he was in love, Anko sat quietly sulking that she lost the fight. Iruka and Asuma sat chatting about the relationship Maaya had with Tsunade, and if she was still a threat.

Kakashi sat with his nose in his copy of Icha Icha Paradise, yet he was deep in thought rather than reading. _She was strong, if she's participating in the jonin exams then this one would definitely interesting. She was stronger than all of us, why isn't she a jonin already? And I didn't see a village sign on her either. Who is she! She could still be dangerous. _He remembered the way she looked, her sweet smile which caused him to blush everything he thought about it. _I have to admit though, she was really beautiful, but then again looks can be deceiving... _

As Maaya stepped into the room, she was amazed by the number of chunins, at least 35 from all different villages. When her initial shock was over she scanned the room better, taking in the chakra flow of each person and judging who may be a good opponent, 7 in total seemed to be strong.

Mattike Asukato, from the hidden star village had strong chakra flow and probably very good control of it. Rumours were that the hidden star village used chakra as their mean source of attack, so having lots of it was a good thing. He stood there alone and leaning against the wall of the room, his dark hair hiding his eyes.

Janika Caturo, a candidate from the hidden village of mist, his blonde hair and carefree smile deceived many of the others, but under his robes there were clearly the outlines of weapons, swords most probably, he may be good at taijutsu.

Amiee Sakato, the hidden village of sound. She was very pretty, standing with her friends and her boyfriend around the middle of the room, red hair in a high pony tail.

Samato Taryo, also from the hidden village of sound, and Amiee Sakato's boyfriend, the pair didn't look like much on the outside but something wasn't right, there was something beneath the surface.

Zakira Yamuri, a girl from the hidden grass village, standing alone also. She wore a hat to hide her hair, which was green. She seemed mysterious, and cold.

Next up was a big guy, and I mean big, he came from the hidden stone village, wearing a vest and shorts, and with a tuff of dark hair on his head. On his wrists he wore 2 bracelets, which looked like weights, his name is Kappa Hingra.

The last was a called Kai Kamuzo, is chakra could be felt simmering under the surface as if he was trying to hold it in but was just managing it. There was a sense of hatred and bitterness in the face that was scary, his village sign said cloud.

Tsunade walked up to the front of the room and addressed the ninjas, "Tomorrow the exams will begin, and there are 2 parts to the whole exam. The 1st will be a written test tomorrow, anyone who fails the test will be immediately failed. The 2nd test will start soon after the first, which will consist of a tournament where you will be fighting one another." Tsunade stopped and looked around the room making sure that everyone understood the concept of the exam, "If anyone is found to be cheating or trying to gain an unfair advantage you will be immediately disqualified and will be handed back to your village for punishment. Now you will be shown to your rooms. I suggest you get some rest, you'll need it."

Maaya looked after Tsunade who had now left the room, and she looked at the set of jonins which had entered to escort them to their rooms. Amongst them she recognised the ones who had attacked her in the forest. Gai waved and came over to Maaya before she could get away.

"I will escort you to your room, my lady." Gai said whilst bowing and taking her hand as if to drag her, until Kakashi blocked him.

"I believe that you have a group to escort Gai, and Maaya-san isn't in yours." Kakashi said in a bored tone. "She is in mine. Please follow me Maaya-san."

There were another 5 people being escorted by Kakashi, none of which she thought was threatening, 2 were from the hidden leaf village, and the other 2 were girls who seemed to be from the hidden rain village.

Maaya trailed behind the group, and was completely unaware that the hidden leaf village chunins had slowed down to walk next to her.

"Hey, I'm Hagane Kotetsu." Said one of them, he had dark spiky hair and a bandage across his face, he pointed to his friend and introduced him too "This is Izumo Kamizuki, and you're Maaya Hayashi aren't you?"

We turned a corner and dropped the 2 girls from the hidden rain village at their rooms and carried on walking.

"How did you know my name?"

"We heard about the fight with Kakashi and the other jonins." Said Izumo, he laughed and looked at Kakashi who was pretending to ignore them. "Hey Kakashi, did she kick your ass bad?"

Kakashi landed a punch directly on Izumos' head, and smiled innocently at a wide eyed Maaya and a laughing Kotetsu.

"I'll take that as a yes. I heard that you took a full blast of Kakashi's fire jutsu, but seeing as there doesn't seem to be a scratch on you, it can't be true." Said Kotetsu while picking up his friend and tossing him into a room.

Maaya didn't know what to say, but she didn't have to answer, Kakashi was the one who spoke.

"Yes she did block my fire jutsu," Said Kakashi as he came to a stop in front of yet another door and motioned for Kotetsu to enter. "Get in."

There was only Kakashi and Maaya left now, she still felt as if she should apologize for the fight.

"I'm s" she was cut of by Kakashi.

"There's no need to apologize again," he said while smiling which made his eye curl up a little, she was cute when she looked worried. "It's all water under the bridge now."

They stopped at another door, which he opened for her.

"This is your room," he said softly, "I will come and get you tomorrow morning for the 1st test, good night."

She walked into her room and turned to face Kakashi and smiled, "Good night."

"Good luck." And he disappeared.

Maaya looked around her room and went straight to bed, it had been a tiring day and tomorrow wasn't going to be much better.

Mattike Asukato sat on his bed thinking about the other ninjas which were going to compete in the tournament. Not many of them looked troublesome, but only one caught his eye, the ninja from the hidden cloud village.

He had heard about the hatred the cloud ninjas had for konoha, and he had felt that hatred as the hokage spoke to them about the exam. _He has tremendous power, he may be my only worthy opponent._

Yet his thoughts drifted to the girl he had heard the rumours about, fighting 5 konoha ninjas and she looked as if she didn't even break a sweat. He remembered the way her eyes glanced at him from across the room as she first walked in, he wasn't sure if the rumour was true or not, but to withstand the fire jutsu of the copy ninja Kakashi was a hard thing to do. _She may be stronger than she looks._


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer; I do not own any of the naruto characters although I wish I did. )

Read and review

Author notes: _Thoughts_

A knock came on the door of Maaya's room in the morning. She was ready for the day, dressed casually in shorts and a tank top. Opening her door she was greeted by Kakashi and all 5 other chunins which had been escorted by Kakashi yesterday.

"Good morning." Maaya said cheerfully with a bow.

"Good morning, Maaya-san," Kakashi said smiling, "We should better be going if we don't want to be late." _Sigh, stupid exam I would still be sleeping if it weren't for this _Kakashi thought.

"Where are we going?" Maaya asked, and before Kakashi could answer, Izumo and Kotetsu jumped into her line of sight.

"We're going to do our test, silly." Said Izumo who ruffled her hair cheerfully.

"I'M NOT SILLY!" Maaya was going red in the face and was shaking her fists at the 2 chunins who were holding up their hands in a surrender gesture and with huge sweat drops on their heads.

The two other girls from the hidden village of rain look at her as if she was crazy, and Kakashi just laughed.

"We're here." Kakashi said, motioning them inside, the two rain girls, stuttered with their thanks and blushed.

Izumo and Kotetsu gave Kakashi and pat on the back and walked in whilst smirking.

"Thank you." Said Maaya and she walked in.

"Good luck." Kakashi whispered.

Maaya turned around, and he had disappeared, did he just say good luck? She took her seat which was in near the centre of the room, and waited whilst everyone else sat down, and then it began.

A scary man walked into the room followed by a bunch of jonins, who some she recognized, Gai winked at her with heart shape eyes, which caused her to cringe a little.

"Today's exam will test your knowledge of genjutsu, ninjutsu and taijutsu, you will have 2 hours for the exam, and if anyone is _caught _cheating then they will be immediately failed and therefore disqualified from the exam." He then continued gesturing to the jonin behind him, "the jonin will sit through the exam and anyone who is caught cheating will be escorted out of the room. The papers will be graded and the results will be announced tomorrow."

The jonins took the seats against the walls of the room, with what looked like a checklist of names and a pen.

"You may now begin."

Maaya looked at her paper, the question we're hard, but easy if you could figure out that most of the questions were just asking about seal techniques etc. She looked around, there were some people who looked like they were struggling and others which had wrote essays already, she took her pen and began writing.

Kakashi sat next to Gai and a woman Jonin named Yuhi Kurenai, looking up and down the rows of chunins. Some looked like they were having a hard time, and he smirked to himself, _most jonins should be able to answer these questions, funny how they haven't figured out that they can cheat, you were just not allowed to get caught. _He remembered that this test was similar to the chunin exams which his team had taken, yet this was harsher since at the chunin exams, you got a 2 point deduction for cheating. This time you got disqualified.

He scanned the room, and his eyes feel onto Maaya with her head down and writing quickly. He had felt angry about the fight at first, but it was hard to stay mad at her when you looked at her. He smiled under his mask remembering how terrified she looked when Gai was purposing to escort her to her room.

A few tables back from Maaya was the girl from the hidden village of rain, she looked like she was about to perform a jutsu, the mind body switch skill aimed directly at Maaya. Kakashi had seen this jutsu used by Ino, a girl genin in Asuma's team, he looked at the girl; if she was unsuccessful he would have to fail her.

She aimed and then unleashed her jutsu at Maaya, Kakashi turn his head to watch what would happen.

Maaya felt the jutsu being aimed at her; she knew exactly who had done it and what would happen if she was successful. It was getting closer, she gently tapped her pen and it fell on the floor and as she bent to retrieve it the jutsu missed her.

The girl from the hidden rain village slumped in her chair, her head rested on her desk. It would take a few minutes for her mind to return to her, the down side to this jutsu was that if she didn't get it right, she wouldn't be able to return to her body.

"Amira Kahati disqualified." Kakashi said, everyone in the room looked up as Kakashi carried the girl out of the room quietly.

Maaya thought to herself, _I get it now, cheat but don't get caught. I'll have to put up a shield to deflect jutsu's now. This test isn't that hard, she should have studied more. _Sighing Maaya got back to work, putting up a shield of chakra barely detectable to warn off anymore unwanted jutsu's. As time passed on, more and more people were disqualified, some shouted and tried to resist but when it was announced that if they didn't leave then the jonins would knock you out and drag you out of the room things quietened down.

Kakashi didn't know if Maaya had dropped her pen on purpose or if it was just a coincidence. He walked back into the room after carrying the unconscious girl out and placing her in the room with the other people who failed, his eyes were on Maaya, as he sat down he sensed something around her.

He lifted his right eye for a moment and used his sharingan and noticed that she had put up a chakra shield around her, _so she did know that she was targeted and she made it look as though she didn't notice, very smart. _

He smirked and just then Maaya looked up at him, he wasn't quick enough to lower his konoha headband and she saw his Sharingan. He couldn't read the expression on her face, but it was clear that she saw it. She just looked at her paper and continued to write, _oh dammit! I can't believe she saw it; then again she didn't look surprised, she may have expected it. Most jonins know that I have the sharingan and that I'm known as the copy ninja, hmmm I wonder… _

It was finally over! The first test was finished! WOOHOO! Maaya looked around and saw that only 16 of the original were left. She yawned and got up from her desk and walked out of the room, when she was outside she was stopped by Izumo and Hagane.

"So how did you think you did?" Izumo asked her chattily.

"I guess it was okay." Maaya replied smiling softly.

"We should go and celebrate, Maaya do you know your way around here yet? You should come with us and we'll show you the best spots in the village." Kotetsu said.

"Maaya WAIT!" Maaya saw a pair of fuzzy eyebrows run up to her, Gai. "I was wondering if you would like to go to dinner with me." Gai said whilst doing his nice guy pose.

"ER… well… Izumo and Kotetsu already asked me to do something with them."

"OH well then I'll come along with you guys then." Gai said persistently, he really didn't get the hint. "Where are you going?"

"We're going to the bar in the village centre." Said Hagane.

Kakashi walked past with his nose in his book, and Gai realised another chance to show off and thought by beating his eternal rival in front of Maaya, she would definitely fall in love with him.

"Kakashi my eternal rival, I challenge you to a drinking contest!" Gai pointed while shouting.

"Another contest Gai?" Yawned Kakashi.

"Yes! I will win you! If I lose then I will do 100000 press ups!"

"Fine."

4 hours later, Gai was drunk and was passed out with his head on the bar; Maaya was nearly asleep because she had joined in with the contest and found her limit of 6 bottles of sake. Izumo and Kotetsu was a little "merry" and pink, so Kakashi being the only sober one there decided it was time for them to get home.

"Izumo, Kotetsu take Gai home." Said Kakashi, as he began to picking up Maaya in a bridal style, "I'll take Maaya back to her room." He disappeared after that leaving Izumo and Kotetsu standing there looking from one to another and then at Gai. Then they began to struggle to lift him and carry him home.

Kakashi looked down at the sleeping Maaya in his arms; she had snuggled into him as the wind was cool whilst he jumped from rooftop to rooftop. When he reached her room, he laid her gently on her bed and pulled the covers over her. She was cute when she was asleep.

She turn over onto her side whilst pulling the blankets over her more, Kakashi sighed and brushed her hair away from her face. Leaning close to her, he brushed her masked lips over her forehead and whispered goodnight.


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer; I do not own any of the naruto characters although I wish I did. )

Read and review

Author notes: _Thoughts_

Maaya woke up in her own bed which she didn't remember getting into; she was fully dressed and had a pounding headache. She went to the bathroom and took a long hot shower, trying to remember what happened last night.

She had got drunk trying to compete with Gai and Kakashi, she vaguely remembered beating Gai and him passing out at the bar but then everything started to get blurry. She sighed and got dried herself off and got dressed, the head ache had lessened now.

There was a knock at her door; she opened it to find Kakashi standing with an eye curled up in a smile.

"Good morning, I thought I'd come and tell you that the results from yesterday test are posted." Kakashi said cheerily.

"Oh, thanks," she was shocked at his gesture but she was grateful.

"I'll show you where they are."

They walked in silence for a few minutes until Maaya decided to speak, Kakashi had been there last night, and he may know what happened.

"Erm… about last night… what happened? I don't remember much." Maaya asked shyly.

Kakashi glanced back at her and decided that he could have a little fun. "Don't you remember what we did? You seemed to know what you were doing last night."

Maaya stopped walking, and her mouth dropped and stared at Kakashi, "OH MY GOD! WHAT DID WE DO!"

Kakashi laughed at her expression, "We didn't do anything, I was just joking; you should see your face." At that moment a fist landed on Kakashi's head creating a huge bump.

"PERVERT!" Maaya shouted while she had blushed bright red, "Don't joke about that!"

Kakashi got up and laughed even more as Maaya sent death glares at him, a crowd of chunins stood ahead looking at the results for the test. Maaya joined the crowd and noticed that all the 16 people who had not been disqualified for cheating had passed, then she looked at the scores, she was top with 98 _Woohoo!_

Maaya ran to Kakashi and hugged him, shouting, "I passed, I passed!" until she realised what she just did, she blushed and let go, Kakashi just stood there with a slight blush on his cheek.

Then came the voice of Tsunade on the speakerphone, "Would all chunins who passed yesterdays test please meet in the stadium now, for the 2nd test is about to commence."

Maaya sighed, _so much for rest; _she turned to Kakashi and said "I suppose I'll see you later then."

"Why? Are you trying to get rid of me so soon?" Kakashi said smiling, "I'm allowed to watch the 2nd exam, the stadiums this way." And he started walking.

_WHAT! _"Wait!" Maaya said as Kakashi had walked quite a distance from her.

"Hurry up or you'll be late."

When they reached the stadium, Izumo and Kotetsu came over to congratulate her on her performance on the test, and they all looked up to see a screen which showed all 16 candidates in a list, it was a table showing who was to fight who. Maaya found her name; she was the 7th in the list and would be fighting against someone called Hurano Sekito, a ninja from the hidden village of mist.

Maaya looked around and found Tsunade stood on a platform above the ground with seats provided for the candidates to sit and watch the fights, above that there were more seats filled with spectators, Maaya thought _I didn't know that we were going to have an audience when we fought;_ she was worried until she felt Kakashi's hand on her shoulder, gently directing her towards the stand which Tsunade was on.

Gai was already there, and had saved Maaya a seat.

"Maaya, over here I saved you a seat!" Gai shouted and waved.

Maaya sighed and walked over to Gai and said hello and graciously took the seat, Kakashi took the seat next to her.

"There's no need to be nervous," Kakashi said whilst smiling and placing his hand on Maaya's. Maaya was just about to say something before Ton Ton jumped on her lap.

"Ton Ton! What are you doing here?" Maaya asked the little pig while hugging it, "where's Shizune?"

"I'm here, Ton Ton you shouldn't just run away like that!" Shizune scolded, while giving a hug to Maaya.

"You see she's so bossy," Tsunade said whilst walking over.

"Tsunade go and start the tournament!" Shizune yelled, as tsunade put her hands up in a surrender gesture and left to announce the beginning.

She looked around at the people on the platform, the people who had passed included the 7 people she had wanted to fight, yet she was disappointed that her first opponent would not be any of them. Shizune had taken a seat next to Kakashi and was scowling at him; he had taken out his copy of Icha Icha Paradise and had started reading it.

"KAKASHI STOP READING THAT PERVERTED BOOK!" Shizune shouted.

"It's not perverted." Kakashi said, not even looking up from the book.

"Why is it perverted?" Maaya asked, causing Shizune and Kakashi to look at her, Kakashi look at her innocent face and couldn't help but smile, it's not everyday you meet someone who hasn't heard of Icha Icha Paradise before, he was just about to speak until Gai butted in.

"My eternal rival enjoys adult reading material; I don't think it is appropriate to be reading such books in front of such beautiful ladies." Gai said whilst shaking his head at Kakashi disapprovingly and tutting at him.

"Kakashi-san isn't that bad, I'm sure the book isn't that bad." Maaya said.

"Hmmm I guess Kakashi can be a gentleman on rare occasions, he did carry you home last night." Gai said nodding with approval now.

_So that's how I got home last night, _Maaya thought, and looked over at Kakashi who was once again absorbed in his book.

"The first fight will now begin, can Janika Caturo from the hidden village of mist and Kanzaki Tomayo from the hidden village of grass step into the arena." Tsunade's voice sounded throughout the stadium.

Maaya's ears pricked up at the sound of Janika Caturo's name, he strode confidently into the middle of the stadium, greeted by the hidden grass ninja and a konoha ninja as the referee.

Maaya got up from her seat and slowly moved to the edge of the platform on which she was standing. She stopped at the railings at the edge and gripped them with both hands.

Gai looked up at Maaya and asked, "What's wrong?"

"He's strong, the grass ninja has no chance, I'm afraid this may end badly for him."

Kakashi looked up from his book, and directed his gaze at the mist ninja that Maaya was talking about, he didn't sense anything abnormal from him, and he seemed average.

"Are you sure?" Kakashi asked.

"What are the rules to this tournament?" Maaya asked quietly.

"Opponents battle to their deaths unless, either one surrenders or is unable to fight." Said Gai who had also stood up to see the mist ninja, "but he seems harmless to me, do you really think he is that good?" Gai stared at the ninja; he wore a large coat and had his village emblem around his neck.

Maaya nodded her eyes never left the body of Janika Caturo, he hand his hands hidden under his coat, probably so that he could reach a weapon quickly, the referee initiated the fight and the battle begun.

The grass ninja attacked first, throwing several shuriken at his opponent, these were evaded with ease as Janika drew a sword and deflect each of them in the blink of an eye.

The grass ninja laughed, "I didn't expect you to fall for such a small attack, but now I'll show you my true power and end this quickly." He performed several seals with his hands and called "demonic tree bind jutsu." A giant tree grew next to Janika and wrapped its branches around him, binding and constricting him, leaving him incapable of movement.

The grass ninja laughed, he started another sequence of seals and shouted, "CRUSH HIM!" causing the tree to tighten its hold on Janika and sending cries of pain through the stadium as the air was squeezed from his lungs.

"CRUSH HIM! KILL HIM!" shouted the grass ninja, his thirst for blood growing after each second, at that moment several glowing kunai came flying at the ninja, who dodged it by a hair.

"What the -!" he looked up to see Janika above him and he was aiming his jutsu at him, _those kunai were made of chakra, _"How did you get up there?" He looked back at the body that his tree jutsu was crushing, it turned to smoke; it was just a clone.

"A thousand blades of heaven Jutsu." Shouted Janika, and sent a thousand chakra made blades flying towards the grass ninja. It was too quick a attack for the ninja to evade so he took the full blast, the knifes sent dust and dirt flying, only after it settled could you see that Janika stood untouched and calm, whilst his opponent Kanzaki Tomayo laid dying and bleeding to death on the ground.

"Janika Caturo from the hidden village of mist is the winner of this fight and will commence into the next rounds." Announced the referee while medics ran up to the bleeding grass ninja and carried him off for immediate medical attention.

All eyes were on Janika when he stepped back onto the platform and took his seat calmly, seemingly unaware of all the attention being directed towards him.

"I guess you were right, he is good." Kakashi said while looking at Maaya who was still staring at the mist ninja, she didn't say anything in reply to Kakashi, he noticed that throughout the match she had been concentrating on Janika's movements, obviously trying to gather information on his fighting technique.

Janika felt Maaya staring and looked up to face her, _she's pretty cute, she was watching me throughout the fight and she wasn't fooled by the clone, hmmm she may be troublesome. _His smiled at Maaya innocently then winked at her, causing her eyes to widen, blush and then look away. He smirked, she was definitely cute.

Kakashi noticed her blushing and looking away, he looked at Janika and found him grinning in their direction. A pang of jealously went through him, _what did that guy do to make Maaya blush? He better not try and make a move on her, he's dangerous. Wait, how come I didn't sense it? He must have been masking it, but then again how did Maaya know…_ He directed his gaze at Maaya who was now looking down at the arena waiting for the next round to start.

Mattike looked at Janika Caturo, at the beginning he wasn't bothered by the match, but after over hearing what that girl Maaya said he began to notice that Janika wasn't the ordinary mist ninja that he wanted everyone to think he was. _Great, another opponent to worry about, _he thought now looking at Maaya who was blushing; _she's the girl who scored highest in the exam._ _How did that girl sense his power? She seemed to know who was going to win, this is very suspicious, and why the hell is she blushing! How can she act so laid back after the way she acted during the fight? I guess I'll just have to watch the way she fights to know her true strength._


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer; I do not own any of the naruto characters although I wish I did. )

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Author notes: _Thoughts_

Izumo was up next, fighting against the stone ninja Kappa Hingra, he looked a lot scarier and meaner than Izumo, and he weighed at least 100 pounds more. Izumo ignored all these things and walked up to his opponent confidently.

"The next fight is between Izumo Kamizuki from our very own hidden leaf village and Kappa Hingra from the Hidden rock village." Said Tsunade; causing the crowd to cheer for their own leaf ninja.

Maaya looked from Izumo to Kappa with a worried expression, and said to Kotetsu, who had come to stand next to her to cheer on his friend, "Are you sure he'll be alright?"

"Of course, I've known Izumo since we were just kids, he doesn't lose easily, and he's tougher than he looks." Said Kotetsu, then adding, "COME ON IZUMO! KICK HIS ASS!"

"WOO! COME ON IZUMO!" shouted Maaya following Kotetsu's example, the least she could do was to show some support to her friend, but secretly thinking _I hope you're right about Izumo, Kotetsu. Kappa Hingra isn't an easy opponent._

"Begin!" Shouted the referee, and with a clash of metal the fight started. Izumo had attacked with a Kunai which clashed with the large metal bands on Kappa's wrists.

Kappa laughed, "You are no match for me, you puny little punk." And threw Izumo about 10 feet back, who landed on his feet, now performing seals with his hands to create a jutsu, it looked exactly like the one Kakashi used on Maaya when they first met.

"You know what they say, the bigger they are; the harder they fall." Smirked Izumo, "Great Fireball Jutsu!" the blast lasted for around 20 seconds leaving dust floating around in the air, Izumo grinned to himself in triumph.

Until the dust settled and the body of Kappa Hingra was nowhere to be found. He heard a rumble underneath him, _he went underground! _A hand came up and grabbed ankle and pulled up under until only his head was visible. Kappa then revealed himself, and landed a punch on the ground which created a huge earthquake and sent Izumo flying and injured on the floor.

Maaya gasped and Kotetsu was furious.

"GET UP!" Kotetsu shouted gripping the railings hard with both hands that his knuckles went white.

Kappa had now produced a giant mace like weapon using the earth; he walked slowly towards Izumo with a crazy grin on his face. "Not so confident now are we punk? I'll end this quickly."

"We have to do something." Maaya said ready to jump in to stop the fight.

"You can't, he'll be disqualified if you jump into the fight." Gai's hand was on her shoulder holding her back.

"He's going to get killed!" Maaya sobbed.

"Maaya's right, we can't let him die." Agreed Kotetsu, he couldn't let his friend die, even if he may hate him for getting him disqualified, this was all the encouragement that Maaya needed.

Kappa reached Izumo with the mace held high, he swiftly lowered it with all his strength but it didn't reach that far.

A girl stood in front of the giant hold onto the mace with one hand, and a man was next to Izumo checking for vital signs.

"Who do you think you are!" Kappa growled at Maaya trying to pull the mace from her grip, but no matter how hard he tried it wouldn't budge, he was getting angry now, "I'm going to kill you then I'll finish off that little punk."

"The fights over, Kappa Hingra wins due to the disqualification of Izumo Kamizuki." Said the referee, he too was relieved that they had jumped into the fight when they did or Izumo would have been dead.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN? THAT'S UNFAIR, I'M GOING TO KILL THAT LITTLE PUNK!" roared Kappa.

"What part of 'the fights over" don't you understand?" Maaya said threateningly, Kappa looked at the girl her eyes dilated black through anger and her hand still holding the mace. He tried to take the mace from her grip once again but there was no way of moving it, _she's really strong and has those crazy looking eyes._

"Fine, but this isn't over" He said shortly and Maaya reluctantly released her grip on the mace and he returned to the platform.

She ran over to Kotetsu and they both watched as Izumo was carried away by medics still unconscious, "How was he?" She asked.

"Bad," Kotetsu looked over at Maaya who looked like she was going to cry, "Don't worry Konoha has the best medicine ninjas in the world; he'll be okay."

She nodded silently and they both returned to the platform and took their seats for the next match to begin.

* * *

All the candidates had watched Maaya and Kotetsu jump into the arena at the very last minute to save their friend. Mattike looked at her; she was silent and still looked very worried. He thought to himself _she didn't even break a sweat when she was blocking Kappa's attack, and Kappa couldn't even get her to release her grip. Something must have scared kappa to make him stop fighting, I know stone ninja's always fight to the death, but what did she do to make kappa retreat? _

Janika watched her take her seat and then watched her friend with the mask put a hand on her shoulder to comfort her, _she's interesting, that big dude was at least 5 times her size and she was able to block his attack as if it was nothing, especially since that dude was strong enough to cause a earthquake with a single punch. _He watched her out of the corner of his eyes as she sighed and nervously cracked her knuckles, sending glares to Kappa as if she was itching to hurt him. If they ended up fighting in this tournament then it would be a great battle to watch.


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer; I do not own any of the naruto characters although I wish I did.

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Author notes: _Thoughts_

"The 3rd fight is about to begin, could Zakira Yamuri from the hidden grass village and Amiee Sakato from the hidden sound village step forward please." Said Tsunade and the two opponents stepped forward to fight.

Maaya looked at them, unsure of who will win, she knew she must analyse their fighting style for her own benefit but her mind kept thinking off Kappa Hingra and how he had hurt her friend. Her fists clenched and she fought with all her will to stop herself from attacking Kappa Hingra at that very moment.

She remembered the blood thirsty look in his eyes when she had blocked his attack, and she thought to herself, _how can anyone be so cruel, to kill someone even after they have won. _

A clash on metal brought her out of her thoughts, and she looked up to see Amiee and Zakira who were fighting head on, and had now stopped with their Kunai intertwined, panting.

"COME ON AMIEE! I KNOW YOU CAN DO IT!" Shouted her boyfriend, Samato Taryo, "I BELIEVE IN YOU!" you could tell that he really loved her.

Maaya looked at Amiee who choice of weapon was the flute, using it to send sound waves at her opponent which were strong enough to create craters in the ground whenever she missed Zakira.

Zakira looked like she was having trouble getting close enough to Amiee to actually attack her, she knew that if she got hit by the sound waves then she would be dramatically weakened and then may not stand a chance in winning the overall match. If there was only a way to separate Amiee from the flute then she would not be able to use her attack.

She dodged the next couple attacks, noticing that whilst attacking the flute was left defenceless as it was held out straight in front of Amiee while aiming to attack. This was it; if she could just destroy the flute then the fight would be hers.

Zakira had a plan; she quickly created a clone of herself to distract Amiee and sneaked up behind her.

Amiee saw Zakira run and followed her sending attacks as she chased her, she aimed and called out, "travelling sound wave jutsu!" and as she stretched out her arm and the flute was cut in half by what seemed like a bunch or petals.

She turned around to see Zakira standing behind her with her hands performing seals. Aimee's head turned to look at the Zakira that she had been chasing and saw that it disappeared with a puff of smoke.

Zakira had her opening now, she released the same jutsu as before and sent thousands of petals flying at Aimee who dodge them with her kunai and found it a easily evadable move.

Aimee laughed, "Even without my weapon you are no match for me with that weak jutsu."

Zakira smirked, "Look at your feet."

Aimee thought it was a tricked and refused and tried to run and attack Zakira, but found herself stuck, she couldn't move her feet, this was when she looked down, the grass had wrapped itself around her legs leaving her immobile, now it was Zakira's turn to laugh.

"Weak Jutsu eh? I'll show you 'weak'!" Zakira shouted and sent the blast of petals soaring at Aimee who couldn't dodge them this time. The petals cut through her leaving her bleeding, slumped onto the floor face down, and unable to continue the fight.

"Aimee Sakato is unable to continue the fight; therefore the winner is Zakira Yamuri from the hidden grass village." Announced the referee.

Up on the platform, Aimee Sakato's boyfriend had jumped from the platform to be at his girlfriends' side when they carried her away to the hospital. He had almost walked out of the stadium until the referee stopped him.

"You cannot leave yet, you have yet to fight." The referee said keeping his toothpick in his mouth.

"Well then, let me fight now!" Said Samato.

"There is one fight before yours, you must wait for it."

Samato looked like he was going to protest but Tsunade walked over to him, "Don't worry about her, she will be placed under the care of the best medics in the village."

"I need to be with her! I love her!" Shouted Samato.

"Would your girlfriend want you to throw away your chance of becoming a jonin so you can sit around in a hospital doing nothing?" Tsunade asked, "There is only one more fight until yours, it will not take long."

Samato seemed to think about this for a few minutes then slowly made his way back onto the platform where all the other candidates stood watching him sit down with clenched fists.

"The next fight is between Hurano Sekito from the hidden mist village and Maaya Hayashi, could they please come down for the fight to begin." Said the referee.

Maaya got up and was just about to jump over the railings down to the arena until her opponent spoke up.

"Erm… I wish to forfeit the match." He said looking embarrassed.

Maaya couldn't believe her ears. "WHAT! WHY!"

Tsunade came up to the mist ninja, "Are you sure? You will be disqualifying yourself from the jonin exams."

"Yes I am sure." He said quietly.

"Ok then, please make your way out of the stadium and follow that jonin there please." Said Tsunade whilst pointing at a jonin which would escort him out of the stadium's arena and to a place where he could watch the rest of the matches.

"WHAT!" Maaya repeated whilst staring angrily at Tsunade who didn't seem to mind.

"Well this is good timing, Samato can have his fight now." Said Tsunade calmly; completely ignoring Maaya's protest that it wasn't fair.

"But… but … but"

"Maaya this is a good thing, you've made it into the next rounds without even having to lift a finger, you should be happy." Said Gai desperately trying to calm down a frantic Maaya.

Maaya sighed and say back down, "I guess your right."

Kakashi sensed her disappointment, "I'm sure you'll get to fight next time, I think that it was the stunt you pulled with Kappa Hingra that must have scared that mist ninja off." He smiled making his eye curl upwards.

Maaya looked up at Kakashi's happy face, and wondered _I bet he didn't care if I got to fight or not. _Just then Kotetsu ruffled her hair.

"ARGHHHHHH! What was that for!" Shouted Maaya.

Kotetsu laughed along with Gai and Kakashi, none of them answering her question, she just sighed, folded her arms and pouted.

Kakashi laughed at Maaya as she pouted and folded her arms, she looked incredible cute and all he wanted to do was hold her. He had suspected that Kotetsu and Gai had also been relieved that Maaya opponent had forfeited, not wanting Maaya to get hurt.

The ninjas in this exam had been the most unexpected strength that Kakashi had seen in a long time, of course he didn't doubt Maaya's strength but he was still worried, especially since he realised that he could not sense much of the candidates' chakra and couldn't estimate their strength. There had been only one chunin who he had been worried about and it was the cloud ninja who had not even bothered to hide his chakra a few days ago in Tsunade's office.

He looked over at Maaya who was now laughing along with Kotetsu and thought, _I hope she doesn't have to fight against him, I don't know what he may be capable of doing but I know that he is strong and may be unable to control his strength._

* * *

Mattike Asukato looked at the girl, he, too, was disappointed that she wasn't going to get the chance to fight; he had been anticipating it from the beginning when she guessed rightly the results of the first match. He glanced at her, she had been disappointed a moment ago but now she was laughing with those konoha ninjas, she also seemed to have a close relationship with the hokage. Mattike found himself wondering who she was, to befriend to hokage of konoha along with some of its best ninjas like the copy ninja Kakashi and the guy in the green jump suit with the weird eyebrows which he had heard was nicknamed Konohas' noble green beast of prey.

* * *

Janika Caturo looked at the girl who had scared off her opponent and grinned to himself. He watched as the 3 konoha ninjas teased her affectionately and watched the way she laughed with them, he found himself desperately wanting this girl to look up at him the way she did with those other men, and smile at him the way she did with them.

A part of him had been disappointed that she didn't get to fight, especially after the incident with Kappa Hingra and since she had sensed his power before anyone else had.

Janika was snapped out of his thoughts as the referee called for Samato Taryo's opponent to come forward. Samato was already there standing impatiently, and desperately wanting to follow his beloved to see if she would be alright. His opponent was a sand ninja named Daruka Yamoto. They stood staring at each other in hands on their kunai's waiting for the referee to initiate the fight.


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer; I do not own any of the naruto characters although I wish I did. )

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Author notes: _Thoughts_

The fight concerning Samato Taryo and his opponent didn't last long; it lasted for like 10 seconds before Samato beat his opponent and ran out of the stadium to see if his girl friend was okay, he didn't even wait for the referee to finish announcing the results before leaving.

"I guess it's my turn now." Said Kotetsu glancing at the sand ninja who was to be his opponent, then he turned to Maaya, Kakashi and Gai, "Save my seat, I'll be right back." Jumping into the arena and landing lightly on the ground waiting for the sand ninja to come down.

"The next fight is between Kotetsu Hagane from the hidden leaf village and Giraza Sarmiz from the hidden sand village, you may begin when ready." Said the referee.

"GOOD LUCK!" Shouted Maaya from the platform.

The sand ninja attacked first with a few shuriken testing Kotetsu's speed and reflexes, which were pretty good since none of them hit its target.

Kotetsu then countered attacking using taijutsu; he kneed Giraza in the stomach making him bend over and then used his elbow to smack him into the ground, then Giraza countered by grabbing Kotetsu at the ankle and cause him to fall to his knees too.

The battle continued without a winner but it looked as if Kotetsu had the advantage when he landed his round house kick on Giraza and sent him flying into the wall of the stadium causing a carter with the impact of the body.

Giraza realised that he was no match for Kotetsu in the taijutsu area and he must change the fighting style of their battle or he would lose, with his back still against the wall which he had been thrown into, he performed a few seals with his hands and shouted "Wind Blast Jutsu." Sending a tremendous gust of wind in Kotetsu's direction, causing him to find cover behind a rock until Giraza got tired from using his jutsu too much.

Giraza panted, exhausted from all the chakra he was using, and decided that it was time for one last attack; he would use his most powerful jutsu combining sand with wind to win the match.

Kotetsu waited for the attack to commence but it didn't, thinking that this was the end he revealed himself from his shelter, giving his opponent the opportunity that he needed.

Giraza called out "Sand storm Blast Jutsu!" And released his last and most powerful attack hoping that it would finish off Kotetsu.

Kotetsu reacted quickly and instinctively he created a fire jutsu, "Phoenix fireball jutsu!" and countered the sand storm his opponent had sent to him, _I don't know how long my jutsu can last against this sand storm, if only there was some way to increase the strength of my attack. _

Before he could think anymore, something miraculous happened, the flames on his jutsu was getting larger, instead of being squashed out by the sand it was being fanned by the wind, creating a fiercer and stronger jutsu, Kotetsu laughed and thought _his plan backfired, his jutsu is actually helping me win the fight. _

Kotetsu then put the remainder of his chakra into the attack, fire clashed with sand and wind, causing an explosion in the stadium. The sand subsided showing Kotetsu had won the match with his opponent unconscious on the floor.

A roar of cheers could be heard from the crowd, finally a konoha ninja had won. And Maaya shouted from the stand clapping and cheering while the referee announced "Giraza Sarmiz is unable to fight, the winner is Kotetsu Hagane from the hidden village of leaf."

Kotetsu smiled at hearing his name and the cheers before collapsing from exhaustion from the fight. The referee rushed to him calling for medics who announced that he would be fine after some rest.

Maaya let a relieved breathe at what the medics said and watched as they carried him away.

"That was pretty smart of Kotetsu in using the wind to fan the flames of his fire jutsu, now if only he could act that smart all the time." Joked Kakashi, causing Maaya to let out a giggle and Gai started to get angry that Maaya "the love of his life" was giving her attention to Kakashi instead of him.

Maaya had wanted to follow the medics out to check on her friends like Samato had done but the last two fights were the ones she had been anticipating to watch from the beginning and nothing would tear her away from them.

* * *

Kai Kamuzo the cloud ninja was up next, Maaya noticed that throughout the whole tournament he had not looked up once to watch any of the fights. He just sat arrogantly at the end on the row with his head down as if deep in thought.

Kakashi also followed Maaya's gaze and looked at the cloud ninja, he expected the next fight between him and the sound ninja to be good. Kakashi also hoped that the sound ninja was better than he looked, especially going up against someone with such unpredictable chakra flow.

"Could Kai Kamuzo from the hidden cloud village and Simari Kankasi from the hidden sound village please come down for the next fight to begin." Said the referee, Simari was quite a burly man who used sound waves which were magnified by a large bell which he carried on his back, as an weapon. The bell was a smart move since he intensified the sound and increased the attacking power of the attack.

Simari stood facing his opponent; Kai was small and scrawny compared to Simari's bulk. "Come on kid, I'll let you have a free hit." Said Simari laughing and sticking out his chin with his hands gesturing for where Kai should hit.

Kai stood motionless, ignoring Simari. "What? Are you too scared to attack me?" Simari's laugh boomed through the stadium.

Maaya gripped the railings harder, _he shouldn't be angering him, he's so stupid. Does he have a death wish? _She could feel Kai's chakra increase as Simari boasted.

"Fine, I'll go first, but don't go crying to me when you lose, I gave you a chance." Grinned the arrogant sound ninja, whilst taking the bell from his back and placing it on the floor in front of him ready to attack. "I'll end this quickly then, you're no fun at all." Simari performed the seals to release his attack; sound wave magnification blast jutsu, the jutsu caused a massive sound wave to head towards Kai creating destruction as it travelled across to him.

Kai held up one hand and deflected the attack with ease, Simari looked shocked at first then he got angry, and tried again and again to hit Kai, who still hadn't moved his feet an inch, with his jutsu.

"I'm tired of your silly little games." Said Kai finally, raising his hand again, this time glowing blue with chakra. The chakra surrounded Simari immobilising him and causing him to rise from the ground.

"I'll be the one who ends this." Kai said coldly and close his hand into a fist causing the chakra around Simari to choke him, and then Kai stretched his arm outwards in one swift motion causing all the people in the stadium to gasp, along with Maaya who turned away from the sight and gasped into Kakashi's chest.

Kakashi did not look away but was surprised as any of the others, he held Maaya in his arms as she trembled from the sight, watching Gai grip the railing so hard from anger that it snapped.

Mattike and Janika looked at Kai in astonishment; they saw the cold, merciless and cruel expression on his face, and then looked at his opponent. Both had not expected anything like this, yet it did not scare them but made them even more determined to face him in battle.

"The winner of this fight is Kai Kamuzo…. His opponent is dead." Said the referee still stunned about what had just happened.

No one cheered or clapped, everyone was still in shock from the sight, as Kai made his way back up onto the platform, Maaya looked up at his emotionless face and then at the several pieces that was left of the body of his opponent which were lying on the ground of the arena stained red with blood.


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer; I do not own any of the naruto characters although I wish I did.

Read and review

Author notes: _Thoughts_

"There will be a delay on the beginning of the next fight, to allow the arena to be cleared." Said the referee seemingly recovered from his shock and was now ordering people to clean up the mess from the last battle.

Kakashi was still holding Maaya, one hand on the small of her back and the other on the back of her head, gently stroking her hair. Kakashi had been glaring at Kai Kamuzo until he heard Maaya speak.

"How could anyone be so cruel as to do that? It's only a stupid contest." Said Maaya, "What is going to happen now?" obviously talking about the ninja who had been killed.

"Well I suppose that they will notify his village and then they will tell his family and friends." Said Kakashi softly whilst looking down at Maaya, who looked up at Kakashi; her eyes widened a little as if just noticing that she was in his arms.

Gai cleared his throat loudly obviously a little annoyed that Maaya had jumped into Kakashi's arms instead of his, this caused Maaya to blush deep red and jump out of his arms, stammering an apology. Kakashi just grinned at her, already missing her warmth and gentleness, he watched as she blushed and pulled herself away from him, still looking a little shaken from the fight.

Gai stood there silently, neither Kakashi nor he spoke noticing that Maaya wasn't in the mood to talk. She stood quietly with her back to the arena leaning slightly on the railings. She seemed to have zoned out and had not even realised that Tsunade had come over to talk to them.

"Maaya?" Tsunade asked, but there was no response, so she placed a hand gently on her shoulder and gave it a little squeeze bringing her back to her senses, "Are you alright?"

"Yes, Tsunade-sama."

"So what did you make of him?" Asked Tsunade looking around but not finding the cloud ninja, "Where the hell is he!" Everyone looked around searching the platform for him.

"He left a few minutes ago, right after they announced that there was going to be a delay, I guess he got tired of waiting." Said Maaya, making everyone look at her, "and I don't know what to make of him."

"What do you mean? I think we should disqualify him!" Shouted Gai outraged.

Tsunade sighed, "We can't disqualify him, he didn't break any of the rules."

"Then we should change the rules, right Maaya?" Said Gai hoping Maaya would approve and agree with him, but Maaya didn't respond, she looked as if she was concentrating hard.

"Maaya, what are you thinking about?" Asked Kakashi gently.

Maaya smiled sadly, "I know I should hate him, but a part of me feels sorry for him, he seemed so lonely and angry."

Kakashi nodded and silently put a hand on Maaya's shoulder and said, "I know, I felt it too, as if he was cold and distant, as if he has never known love." He paused then continued slowly, "But you cannot let that blind you in battle, if you had to face him you cannot hesitate, he won't show you the kind of emotion you have shown him."

"I know what I have to do if I am to fight him." Maaya said quietly, and added in a whisper, "I just wish I didn't have to."

After that the conversation seemed to disintegrate which left them standing in silence waiting for the next fight to be able to begin.

Mattike was deep in thought but was awoken from this when he had heard that Kai Kamuzo had left without anyone noticing except that girl, it made him wonder. He saw that she had turned away from the fight when it had ended and was comforted by Hatake Kakashi, there seemed to be something going on between them, that they were both unable to admit at this moment.

Yet it was her reaction to the fight that threw him, if she was as powerful as he had thought then she should be able to cope with blood and death, she somehow seemed too naïve to be a chunin or to hope to be a jonin, and he seriously doubted her ambition to become a jonin if she wasn't willing to kill for it.

He sighed impatiently hoping that his fight could start soon, he was sick of standing here and waiting, and he cursed his luck that he had to fight last.

Janika watched the people down in the arena cleaning up after the mess made by Kai Kamuzo. On the outside he hid his emotions, looking impressed yet determined, yet on the inside there was a sense of worry and anxiety; he knew that he may have to face the cloud ninja in battle soon and he needed to be ready.

He had looked across the platform to assess what the reactions of the people were, most people had been able to watch the show without flinching but what surprised him the most was Maaya's reaction, it was unexpected for a jonin to be scared of such little things. Then again she was a girl, what did he actually expect, _at least she didn't throw up like most girls would do. _

"The last fight can begin now; can Mattike Asukato from the hidden star village and Yamato Sari from the hidden rain village please come down." Said the referee, the arena now was clean.

Mattike jumped swiftly into the arena and so did his opponent, both itching for the fight to be over and done with. Mattike had decided to end this fight quickly too, it had been a long day and he needed time to reflect on other probable opponents that he may have to face.

"You may now begin!" Shouted the referee.

The two opponents stood staring at each other ready to fight.


	10. Chapter 10

Disclaimer; I do not own any of the naruto characters although I wish I did. )

Read and review

Author notes: _Thoughts_

_**Flashbacks**_

Mattike Asukato and Yamato Sari both released their jutsu at the same time, the rain ninja called out, "Water Needle Jutsu!" creating a few hundred needles made of water from the moisture in the air. They were sharp and would be deadly if properly used on their opponent.

The needles flew at Mattike who shouted his jutsu which created a peacock like tail made of chakra around Mattike. He controlled the chakra and destroyed the water needles before they could get close to him.

Mattike then directed his chakra towards his opponent, who dodged but was eventually engulfed by Mattike's jutsu, letting out a piercing scream of pain and agony.

Maaya closed her eyes not wanting to see another person die, but when the screaming stopped, and then the voice of the referee called, "Mattike Asukato from the hidden star village is the winner, his opponent is unable to battle."

Maaya opened her eyes to see that both candidates were still alive, Mattike stood there unfazed and medics were crowded around Yamato Sari, but they said that he would be good as new in no time.

She let out a relieved breathe and looked at the indifferent looking Mattike, and she thought that he was definitely unlike Kai Kamuzo and she smiled at the thought.

"The first round for the 2nd exams is over, the people going through to the next round are; Janika Caturo from the hidden mist village, Kappa Hingra from the hidden village of rock, Zakira Yamuri the hidden grass ninja, Maaya Hayashi, Samato Taryo the hidden sound ninja, our very own Kotetsu Hagane, Kai Kamuzo form cloud and Mattike from the hidden star village." Announced Tsunade followed by a cheer from the audience, she then continued, "The 2nd round will begin 2 weeks from today, now may all the please step this way to be examined by the medics." She said using her hands to gesture in the same direction which all the other injured ninjas had been carried.

"Why do we need to been examined by medics? I didn't even do anything!" Said Maaya scratching the top of her head in confusion.

"Some people are injured during battle without their knowledge which can be dangerous," said Gai knowledgably, "It's the rules, you should go just in case."

Maaya sighed, "Okay then, I'll see you later." She said to Kakashi and Gai and followed the crowd of chunins who looked annoyed as she had been that even though she wasn't injured she still had to get checked up!

Maaya sat on a chair that had been placed in a row next to the wall; she sat in-between Janika Caturo who had his hands on the back of his head and had slouched down the seat so he was practically lying down. And to her right was Mattike who was also slouched with his eyes looking down.

They were told to sit there until they were called in, she assumed that in the other Kotetsu and Izumo was recovering there so she was anxious to get this over with and see her friends.

Maaya didn't like the uncomfortable silence that had stretch between the 3 of them, so she decided to make conversation, "Congratulations," she said quietly causing them to both look up at her in surprise, "I mean for passing the test and getting through to the next round and everything." She blushed harder as they didn't say anything and just stared at her, she started to think _OMG making conversation was such a bad idea, why don't they say something. _

Janika was the first to speak between the two boys, "thanks, although we're still rivals."

"He's right, don't act nice or friendly we'll have to fight each other soon and I won't hesitate to kill either of you." Said Mattike who had gone back to looking at the ground.

Maaya and Janika both sweat dropped, "Dude, I was joking." Grinned Janika nervously.

"Anyway it's not like we can be rivals forever, you won't need to fight us after the exam." Maaya said trying to lighten the mood, regretting that the silence was gone.

Janika sensed the tension and decided to change the subject, "so who do you think is the strongest out of us lot?" he asked casually, though inside he was dying to find out what the other two thought of their opponents and himself.

Mattike didn't respond to that question, but Maaya did, "I believe that both of you and the cloud ninja and I are the favourites to win the tournament." Said Maaya honestly, causing Mattike and Janika to look up at Maaya who was now slouched forward with her elbows rested on her thighs and her head rested on her hands.

Mattike was not surprised by the answer but by the way she answered it, "you don't think any other people are threats? That's very confident of you," he said.

"The way I see it is, Kappa is all brawn and no brain, Samato is too easily distracted, Zakira ninjutsu is too weak and Kotetsu just scraped the win." She said dreamily as she gazed forward.

"And why are you telling us all this stuff? For all we know you could be lying." Janika said cynically.

"You don't have to believe me, but I think that you have the same ideas as me anyway, and I'm telling you guys this because I have an unfair advantage over you guys." She said softly.

"Unfair advantage?" the both said in unison, wondering how she could have gained an advantage so quickly.

"I got to see both of your fight and you didn't get to see me fight, remember, my opponent forfeited the match."

"We saw you face off against that stone ninja." Said Janika grinning, "I didn't think you could be so physically strong."

Maaya smiled happily when she heard this, it was always nice to be acknowledged. She was about to say something else but it was just then that a nurse came out and called her name and asked her to come into the room. She got up and followed the nurse into the room.

After she got her check up and the nurse announce that she was fine, even though Maaya told the nurse that she felt fine and that she didn't even fight 10 times which the nurse ignored.

She walked into another room which was full of little camping beds and saw that all the other competitors were there already accept Janika and Mattike. She looked around and saw Amiee Sakato lying unconscious on one of the beds with her boyfriend sat next to her holding her hand and looking devastated. Then she spotted Izumo and Kotetsu lying on two beds which were next to each other.

She rushed to them, Kotetsu didn't look so bad, just a few cuts and bruises, but Izumo looked in bad shape. She caught the attention of a nearby nurse.

"How are they? When will they be better?" Maaya asked.

"They are both in stable conditions, yet they can't be healed until some medic ninjas return from their missions, so until then we just have to use old fashion medicine." Said the nurse.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN THERE AREN'T ANY MEDIC NINJAS AROUND?" Maaya shouted, causing everyone in the room to look up at her, also Janika and Mattike who had just entered the room watched Maaya shout at the nurse.

"I'm sorry but the only 2 medic ninjas that are left in the village is Tsunade-sama and Shizune-sama, but they are busy with work at the moment so they cannot come down here personally."

"But…but…." Maaya said now defeated.

"I'm sorry but all we can do is wait." Said the nurse retreating back into the next room.

Janika and Mattike walked over to Maaya, "what was that about?" said Janika.

"There aren't any medic ninjas in the village." She said bluntly looking at Izumo and Kotetsu. She made up her mind she wasn't going to let them suffer especially if she could help them, let's not forget she had been Tsunade's apprentice too, a few years ago, she may be better at healing that Tsunade was now.

Maaya walked over to Izumo first and sat down on the edge of his bed laying a hand over his bandaged forehead.

"What are you doing?" asked Mattike staring curiously at the girl.

"Shhhhhh." She said softy trying to concentrate, laying a hand on Izumos forehead allowed her to sense all the injury's he had, so instead of healing his whole body she only targeted the parts that needed the attention.

Mattike was a little offended but as Maaya's hand started to glow with chakra he forgot all about it.

Maaya's hand passed her chakra into Izumos body, causing Izumos whole body to glow with energy, a few minutes passed and Izumos eyes began to open and focus on Maaya who signalled to him to stay lied down. After Maaya finished healing, Izumo sat up.

"You can take your bandages off now, and you should rest for a little while before you do anything hard, your body isn't used to my chakra." She said gently.

"I can't believe you healed that little punk, I guess I'll have to hurt him again, though this time I won't go so easy on you." Laughed Kappa Hingra, who had been Izumos opponent earlier, from behind them and was now walking up to them slowly.

He was about 5 meters away from them when he suddenly stopped in his tracks; he was held back by Janika who pointed a sword at Kappa's throat. Maaya didn't even sense him move, but at least this way she didn't have to fight Kappa.

"Take another step and I'll chop your head off." Said Janika menacingly.

"I'm not scared of little punks." Said Kappa in response.

"Well if you are going to fight Janika then you might as well fight me too." Said Samato who had left his girl friends side and had made his way close to Maaya's group.

Mattike hadn't said anything but had placed himself in front of Maaya and Izumo in a protective fashion.

"Thank you." Said Maaya bowing her head slightly and then getting up to heal Kotetsu, which was easier and quicker than Izumo since he wasn't hurt as badly.

Kappa growled but retreated mainly because the prospect of fighting 3 of them on his own was unappealing. Once Kotetsu was fully healed she said the same thing as she had said to Izumo and told him to rest for a little while. She then got up and greeted Samato.

"Thank you for sticking up for us," and then Maaya had an idea to express her gratitude, "Would you like me to heal your girlfriend?"

"Really? You would? Thank you so much." Said Samato in disbelief, and pulling Maaya into a hug from happiness.

Maaya did the same thing for Amiee as she did for Izumo and Kotetsu, and in minutes she was fully healed, waking up with a start and hugging her boyfriend, raining kisses on each other, Maaya stood up quietly smiling and left them to do their thing.

She walked to the bed that was beside Izumos and Kotetsus who were now sleeping and sat down sighing. She remembered the last time she had healed someone, it had been so long ago and it had failed miserably, she remembered thinking to herself; even with all this power she wasn't able to save him. She sighed again, she knew it had not been her fault but she felt guilty all the same, she had hated the feeling that she was useless and unable to do anything, that was one of the reasons why she decided to come to konoha and become a jonin.

Maaya stayed staring into space for what seemed like ages, until she felt someone hand resting on her shoulder and looked up to see Janika smiling.

"The nurse said we could leave." Only he and Mattike and Maaya were left in the room, with the exception of those sleeping, "thought you might want to know." He finished cheekily.

"Oh, thank you." Said Maaya getting up and followed Mattike and Janika out of the room, she walked down the corridor with Janika and Mattike in silence, and this time she thought it would be best not to break it, especially after last time, though they now seemed more friendly towards her and did stand up for her and Izumo when Kappa wanted to pick a fight.

They walked a little further until Maaya noticed that up ahead there stood Gai arms folded looking annoyed at how long it was taking Maaya to come out, and Kakashi who was leant against the wall reading his usual Icha Icha Paradise.

Maaya was surprised, _are they waiting for me? _Then Gai noticed her and ran to greet her.

"Maaya-Chan, I was worried that you were taking so long to come out so I came here to make sure you were okay, are you alright?" He asked frantically, looking her over while Maaya scratched the back of her head in embarrassment.

Janika and Mattike looked at one another and then at Maaya and the weird jonin with the big black fuzzy eyebrows, they both glared suspiciously at this guy when he took Maaya's hand in his and started to recite a poem he had learned to impress Maaya.

Gai finished the poem and stared lovingly at Maaya waiting for a response, she didn't know what to say, this has got to be the weirdest thing she had ever seen.

Eventually Gai noticed the two ninjas behind Maaya, and he stared at them suspiciously, he knew they had been contestants in the exams; therefore they were rivals of Maaya.

Kakashi had noticed the ninjas as soon as he saw Maaya walking towards them, he was about to go up to greet her but Gai beat him to it, and he was not going to get caught up in their conversation if Gai was going to be reciting a poem for Maaya, it was a little too creepy for his tastes, even if he did read Icha Icha Paradise.

Gai was now confronting the two chunins, "Why are you here? Don't you try anything stupid or you'll have me to deal with." He threatened, going all serious all of a sudden and had stepped in between the two strange men and Maaya, "If you are intending to hurt Maaya-Chan then you will have to go through me." Now he was going into a fighting stance.

Kakashi felt like it was time for him to step in and smooth things over, especially since Maaya looked like she would throw herself in between them is they were to fight each other.

"There's no need to fight them Gai, they didn't look like they were trying to harm anyone." Said Kakashi walking over to them, and then stopped and gave Maaya a small salute, "Yo."

She smiled at Kakashi, she didn't understand why, but once he was with them she felt better, he was always so laid back but reliable and sensible, unlike Gai.

"Kakashi-san is right," She said desperately trying to calm down Gai and then gestured to the two chunins, "they are nice people and they helped me, please don't start a fight."

"Humph, well I guess since you think so highly of them, they cannot be that bad." Said Gai finally, but there was still suspicion in his eyes.

Mattike and Janika looked at one another, and Janika spoke, "I guess we'll be going now, see you around cutie." He said to Maaya, causing her to blush and making Gai go red and Kakashi only exposed eye widen.

"Wait," Said Maaya and they turned around, "thank you for helping me, I know you didn't have to and I don't know why you did, but thanks."

Janika laughed, "I always do cute girls favours, and I couldn't let that stupid Rock ninja fight you since I want that honour instead." Sending Maaya a wink from over his shoulder and they both disappeared, _strange _thought Maaya _they seemed to have bonded. Men I can never understand them. _

She turned back to Gai and Kakashi, both looking a little annoyed, well Gai looked angrier than annoyed.

"You shouldn't be hanging around with them, they are dangerous and they are your rivals!" shouted Gai.

"They seemed pretty nice to me," Said Maaya cheerfully.

"But they could be just acting nice to get you to let your guard down." Insisted Gai.

"I know what I'm doing and I'm not that stupid!" Shouted Maaya, she didn't like being told what to do especially by this dude.

"Kakashi, as my eternal rival I shouldn't be asking you for a favour, but please help me persuade her that those men are bad for her."

They both looked expectantly at Kakashi, who just sweat dropped and scratched the back of his head, he decided to change the subject. He placed his hands on Maaya's shoulders and directed her away from Gai and asked. "Why did you need help? What happened in there?" his tone was soft and gentle and it made Maaya trust him.

"That stupid rock ninja Kappa Hingra was about to disturb me while I was healing Izumo, Janika, Mattike and Samato from the sound village stood up for me." Said Maaya recalling the event in her mind, she was very grateful for what they did, she didn't want to have to deal with Kappa Hingra when she was busy healing.

"I didn't know you could heal." Said a surprised Kakashi, but then thought about it, she had been Tsunade's apprentice for a while. "But I should have expected it since you know Tsunade."

She smiled, "Yes, it was Tsunade who helped me hone my healing skills," she thought back and remembered how hard it was at first, but then it became easier and soon she didn't even have to think and her chakra would automatically heal her, she snapped back into her senses, "Oh yeah, was there any particular reason why you two were waiting for me?" She asked politely.

Kakashi smiled at her question, making his eye curl upwards sweetly and sincerely, "I was wondering if you would like to go to dinner with me." He asked Maaya whilst scratching the back of his head.

"Erm…." Said Maaya slightly taken aback and blushing.

"Wait a minute! I was about to ask her that." Yelled Gai pointing an accusing finger at Kakashi.

"Oh Gai, I didn't know that you were still here." Said Kakashi dreamily which angered Gai.

"Ah Kakashi my eternal rival, I'm sure Maaya-Chan would rather go out with me than you." He said smugly and they both stared at Maaya who was backing away slowly with her hands up.

"Why don't we all go together?" Said Maaya desperately as Kakashi and Gai glared at each other.

She sighed, and thought _this was going to be a longer day than I hoped._

* * *

Mattike sat oh his bed in his room back at the hokage castle, and sighed. He had acted unlike himself today, firstly he got attached to his opponents and then he stood up for that girl, these were things that had never happened before.

The words that girl Maaya said to him stuck in his mind, "It's not like we can be rivals forever, and you won't need to fight us after the exam." He remembered her naïve smile after she said this, somehow after that moment and those words had sunk in, he felt protective of her.

The strangest thing was, is that she seemed capable of looking after herself, he had been surprised to learn that she could heal, which added to her advantage, and even if he and the others hadn't been there to stop Kappa, he was sure that she could have taken him on without any problems. But at that moment his body moved instinctively and he placed himself in between her and danger.

He punched the wall, and thought _I can't get attached to her; I can't get attached to any one, not her, not Janika. _He thought back to when Maaya had left them to go and get checked up by the nurse.

Janika and he had sat in silence, until Janika asked him about his reasons for him becoming a jonin.

"_**So why are you here?" Asked Janika casually.**_

_**Mattike didn't respond but he clenched his fists, which Janika noticed.**_

"**_Well, I'm here because of my family; I have 2 younger brothers and a younger sister. They are too young to work, and my father is dead, and my mother is ill, being a jonin allows me to provide money for them." Janika said with a carefree tone to his voice, trying to hide that he didn't mind that he had sacrificed his life so that his family could have a better one._**

**_Mattike looked up at Janika, he didn't know why but he began to tell him why he was here, "I came here because of my village. We're small and are constantly under threat because of it. We aren't weak, but there are only a few of us, if I became a jonin I could help my village and my people more. Right now my status of a chunin isn't good enough." _**

"_**Life sucks doesn't it?" Joked Janika, but his face stay serious, it was then when Mattike knew that he was just like him, and it was then when they had an unspoken respect for one another.**_


	11. Chapter 11

Disclaimer; I do not own any of the naruto characters although I wish I did. )

Read and review

Author notes: _Thoughts_

_**Flashbacks**_

Maaya walked between Kakashi and Gai through the village to the Ichiraku Ramen stand where they had all agreed to eat dinner.

When they reached the Ramen stand, a voice called out to them.

"Kakashi-sensei, Gai-sensei, what are you doing here? Did you watch the Jonin exams?" said a strange looking child in his teens, dressed in orange and had blonde spiky hair, and then he noticed Maaya standing next to them with a curious expression on her face, "Who are you?"

"This is Maaya Hayashi; she is one of the candidates participating in the jonin exams." Kakashi explained to the boy who didn't seemed to get it.

"But I didn't see her fight today." Said the boy.

"That's because my opponent forfeited the match." Said Maaya gently with a friendly smile on her face, Maaya had always like children; she thought that they were cute and funny, unlike some people who thought that they were annoying.

"This is Uzumaki Naruto," Kakashi introduced, pointing to the boy dressed in orange, then he gestured towards to other faces Maaya hadn't noticed before, "This is Haruno Sakura and Uchiha Sasuke." The girl had pink shoulder length hair and emerald eyes, and the boy had black hair and dark eyes. All of them wore the Konoha sign on their heads; Maaya thought that they must be Genins.

"This is my Genin team." Said Kakashi.

"You have a genin team? I didn't know you taught kids." Said Maaya seemingly impressed.

"I also have a genin team, only my team is more experienced than Kakashi's team." Said Gai proudly, obviously trying to show off, "Ah right on cue." He said spotting 3 teenaged kids walking slowly towards them in the distance and ran up to them.

Kakashi and Maaya watched Gai run to his students; Maaya sighed and sat down on the next to Kakashi's students and ordered, she was hungry and wasn't going to wait for Gai to convince his students that they should come over to try to impress her.

Kakashi sat down on the seat next to her and ordered too, Maaya noticed that when they waitress girl took his order she blushed and stammered.

"Kakashi-sensei, are you eating?" Asked Naruto slowly who was glaring at Kakashi with strained eyes, and so were the other two genins.

"Of course I am Naruto, why else would I come here?" Kakashi smiled, whilst Maaya sat there looking from the students then at Kakashi.

"Why wouldn't Kakashi-san eat?" Said Maaya.

It was Sakura that spoke in a low whisper in which she hoped Kakashi-sensei didn't hear. "Kakashi-sensei never takes off his mask, and we have never seen what's under it."

"We tried to see his face once but we failed miserably." Said Naruto sadly.

Maaya laughed and then spoke to Kakashi, "Kakashi-san why do you always wear a mask? I'm sure you're really handsome underneath it."

Kakashi blushed and then smiled back at Maaya, "It's one of those life's mysteries I guess." And he brought out a copy of Icha Icha Paradise and began reading.

All three of Kakashi's students notice him blushing, this was a first for their sensei, and all three of them had the same idea, that maybe their sensei had a crush on this Maaya woman.

"So Maaya-san, where do you come from? I remember in the fights today that when your name was called they didn't say where you came from." Asked Sakura, this surprised Maaya, _this girl is pretty smart, I guess it has something to do with the large forehead._

Maaya hesitated a little, until Kakashi said, "That is true, I don't know why I didn't realise earlier, and I don't know even one thing about you." He smiled, he couldn't think why he had never bothered to ask her anything about herself; she was a complete mystery to him.

"Well, I guess I don't really have a home, I was orphaned as a child and I ran away from the children home when I was young and then I met some street kids and they became my family." Maaya's voice sounded distant and dreamy as she recalled her childhood, she didn't look upset but she didn't show any other emotion either as if she blocked out all her feelings for these events.

"We, the other street kids and I, moved around a lot, but we were chased out of every village we got to. And then when they realised I had different strengths to them I was forced out of the group and I wondered around alone." Kakashi was sure that the strength she was referring to was her chakra and her powers.

"Then I met Tsunade, she seemed to understand me better than I did, she taught me how to control my chakra and how to defend myself, but after a few years with Tsunade I left them one day, and I haven't seen them since I came here to Konoha." Maaya finished by smiling.

"That must have been hard." Said Kakashi quietly, he had no idea that she had such a hard childhood and life.

"That's okay, I actually am quite grateful, if it wasn't for that then I wouldn't be as strong as I am right now." Said Maaya eventually, "it's all in the past now anyway, there's nothing anyone can do to change it, all I can do I move on."

Kakashi smiled at her and she smiled back as if they were in their own little world. Naruto had a plan he could get Kakashi-sensei and Maaya-san together, how all he had to make sure of is that she was the right for his sensei.

"Maaya-san how old are you?" Asked Naruto, as soon as those words left his mouth, Sakura hit his head with her fist.

"Naruto that is so rude, you should never ask a woman her age." Shouted Sakura with flames in her eyes; this scene cause Maaya to laugh.

"It's okay; I don't mind telling you, I'm 20 years old." Said Maaya smiling and Naruto thought that she was perfect for his sensei.

Soon the waitress bought out the food, all three students including Maaya stared intently at Kakashi, who didn't seem to notice, he picked up his chopsticks and his hand reached up to his mask. The waitress also looked longingly at Kakashi hoping that she could get another glimpse of this mans face.

Kakashi's hand was on his mask ready to pull it down so he could eat, Maaya had wondered a little about his face but he thought that it was some sort of uniform, of course now she knew it wasn't and since she noticed the waitresses' reaction towards Kakashi, she was desperate to find out what he looked like.

Kakashi had now grasped his mask in his fingers and was ready to lower it, at that moment Gai crashed down onto Kakashi followed by his 3 students, smiling and completely oblivious to what they had just done.

Naruto sighed, "I knew it would be too easy to see Kakashi-sensei's face, it didn't work last time either." Causing Sakura, Sasuke and Maaya to sigh as well.

"What's this talk about my eternal rivals face!" Asked Gai moving from on top of Kakashi to reveal he had finished eating and his mask was back up covering his face, "Maaya-Chan, please allow me to introduce my wonderful and youthful students. This is Lee, Neji and TenTen." Gesturing to 3 kids, one who looked like a miniature version of Gai himself, whom she assumed was Lee, Neji had pale white eyes and long brown hair, he looked annoyed and didn't look pleased with his sensei. The last student was a girl who also had brown hair which was tied up in two buns on the top of either side of her head.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Maaya Hayashi." Said Maaya with a little bow of her head and smiled at them.

"Gai-sensei has told us many things about you, Maaya-san." Said Lee eagerly, he had been curious about the woman his sensei couldn't stop talking about, however TenTen and Neji was just used to their sensei being a little obsessive.

"Really, what has he said about me?" Said Maaya a little confused, she hadn't known Gai for very long and when they first met she had beat him up. _Hmm did he say something bad about me or good? He seems to have completely forgotten about our first meeting._

"Gai-sensei says that you are the perfect example of youth! He also said...Mmphhh" Lee was cut off when Gai grabbed him to make him stop talking, he was obviously embarrassed about something, and he laughed nervously.

"Erm… thank you." Said Maaya uncertainly.

"Maaya-san, your food is getting cold." Said Kakashi, who had been watching Gai trying to impress Maaya and failing badly, Kakashi didn't know why he just couldn't back off, why couldn't he just take the hint.

"Oh yeah, I've completely forgot about it," She said laughing and then she smiled, "Thanks." Maaya picked up and started to eat.

After they had finished eating, it was pretty late so Maaya decided to head of back to her room to sleep, she knew she had to start training tomorrow; she had 2 weeks, which was more than enough time.

After they had eaten everyone went their separate ways, Gai led his students' home and Sakura, Sasuke and Naruto went home. After a while there was only Kakashi and Maaya left.

"I'll walk you back." Said Kakashi smiling sweetly.

"You don't have to," said Maaya sincerely, she didn't want to be a burden on him especially since he has been so nice, "I can find my way back by myself, I don't want to burden you."

Kakashi laughed, "I would like to walk to home, just in case you meet some bad guys along the way." Maaya laughed along with Kakashi and then they fell into silence and they walked at the same pace.

"I'm sorry for my students; they sometimes don't know when to shut up, I didn't mean for them to ask you such personal things." Said Kakashi cautiously.

"That's okay, I didn't know how much Tsunade has told you about me anyway, and obviously it wasn't much." And then something that had been nagging in her mind since Kakashi had introduced her to his students, "Is Uchiha Sasuke the younger brother of Uchiha Itachi?"

"Yes he is. He's the last survivor of the Uchiha clan."

"That must be hard for him, he didn't say much. And I was told that Naruto has the Nine Tail fox sealed inside him?" said Maaya, "You've done a good job teaching him."

Kakashi was astonished by her reaction to Naruto, most other people would have hated him, and for something that wasn't his fault, he looked over at Maaya, and thought _she's really something different._

"So what are you going to do for the next 2 weeks?" Asked Kakashi.

"Well I suppose I'll train and I could always get to know the village better."

"Are you worried about your opponents?" What Kakashi didn't say was that he was worried for her.

"Hmm, I think Janika and Mattike are strong and even if I was to lose to them they won't kill me, but Kai Kamuzo is a different matter. It'll be a kill or be killed fight."

They fell into silence after Maaya said this, until Kakashi said slowly, "I'm worried about Janika and Mattike."

Maaya looked at him, when Gai said it she didn't think much about it, but now when Kakashi said the same thing it was different. She stopped walking and looked down at the floor; her long dark hair fell in front of her face hiding her eyes.

"I don't think that they would hurt me; well not until we are forced to." Then she looked up and smiled gently at Kakashi, "please trust me, I know what I'm doing, and I know that you and Gai-san are just trying to help me, but I've been alone for a long time, and I know how to take care of myself."

They walked to the door of her room, and Kakashi said, "It's always nice to have other people who care about you too, just in case. Good night Maaya-san." And he took her hand and gently placed a kiss on it with his covered lips.

"Good night Kakashi-san." And she closed her door.

As Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke walked home, Naruto decided to run his plan to get Kakashi-sensei and Maaya-san together by his team mates, "don't you think that Kakashi-sensei and Maaya-san make a good couple?"

"I noticed it too!" Said Sakura, "I've never seen Kakashi-sensei blush before, what do you think Sasuke-kun?"

"Hmm, whatever." Said Sasuke.

"If we can get them together than Kakashi-sensei will be nicer to us." Said Naruto and Sakura in unison.

"Okay, we have to have a plan. Sasuke, are you in or out?" Naruto asked.

"I'm going home." Said Sasuke in response.

"Are you too chicken?" Naruto sniggered.

"I AM NOT A CHICKEN! I'M IN!" shouted Sasuke.

Naruto laughed, _I knew that would work! _"Okay then we'll come up with a plan tomorrow."

Rock Lee was up late training, and thinking about his wonderful sensei and the beautiful Maaya-san, he knew that they would make a really good couple. It was then that he knew what to do; he would have to get them together, it was the least he could do for his wonderful sensei who he loved so much.


	12. Chapter 12

Disclaimer; I do not own any of the naruto characters although I wish I did. )

Read and review

Author notes: _Thoughts_

_**Flashbacks**_

The next morning Kakashi was walking to Maaya's room; he had been thinking about her all night and had barely any sleep. He wasn't sure when the last time he had felt like this about anyone, but it has been a long time.

He reached the door to Maaya's room and knocked on it, waiting for a reply but not getting one. He knocked again, but still no one replied; now he was getting worried, "Maaya-san!" he tried once last time, and after a few seconds of silence he decided to break the door down. The room looked tidy and there was no sign of a struggle, it looked normal and peaceful but there was no Maaya.

This was strange; it was around 8:00am so Maaya should still be in her room, to be honest it was stranger to see Kakashi up at this time that anything else, normally he woke up just in time to eat lunch.

Kakashi was getting worried; _maybe I should ask the hokage if she has seen Maaya. _He walked to the door of the Hokage's room and knocked, at first there was no reply, so he tried again, and again. Then suddenly the hokage burst out of her room.

"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU WANT?" she shouted and then noticed that it was Kakashi, "OMG SOMETHING BAD MUST HAVE HAPPENED; YOU'RE UP SO EARLY!"

"Oh nothing bad has happened, tsunade-sama." Said Kakashi laughing and scratching the back of his head, there was no point in getting offended by her remark as he knew it was true and also Tsunade looked like she was in a bad mood.

"THEN WHY ARE YOU HERE THEN?" She was huffing and puffing with anger and a red face, "FIRST MAAYA COMES HERE AT 5:00am AND NOW YOU!"

"Oh, so you know where Maaya is then?" Kakashi said casually.

"She came here to ask me where would be a quite place to train, I sent her to the forests somewhere." Grumbled Tsunade and slammed the door in Kakashi's face going back to get more sleep.

Kakashi stood in front of her door with a big sweat drop on his head, and then he sighed. He wanted to go to the forests to find Maaya, but if she was training he didn't want to distract her. And also he had to meet his 3 students later, well he was already late to meet them but they were used to it.

He had told his students to meet him at 6:00am at the gates of konoha, he was 2 hours late, but he usually didn't show up until noon anyway. He could be earlier than usual to meet them, they would be definitely surprised.

He was planning to take his team into the forest to train anyway, and then a thought ran through his mind, _maybe we could "accidentally" bump into Maaya while she's training. _

When he reached the gates of konoha he saw his 3 genin's stood around obviously not expecting to see their sensei not another couple of hours. They were stood talking in a little group, this was very suspicious, the wasn't normal behaviour, usually Sasuke and Naruto were at each other throats and Sakura would be hitting Naruto and sticking up for Sasuke.

"So what's the plan?" Said Naruto.

"I thought you were coming up with the plan, idiot." Said Sasuke.

"Don't call me idiot, you idiot." Shouted back Naruto.

"Don't call Sasuke-kun an idiot!" yelled Sakura and she landed a punch on Naruto's head.

"Sorry Sakura-Chan." Said Naruto with tears.

"Well we could get Maaya-san to join us when we train so she can spend more time with Kakashi-sensei." Said Sakura.

"And then we can make them fall in love or something!" Said Naruto naively, he didn't seem to realise how hard it actually was.

"Naruto, idiot, it's not going to be that easy, we're going to have to make sure that Kakashi-sensei does the right thing." Said Sakura.

"What do you mean?" asked Naruto.

"Well, we can't let Kakashi-sensei read his books in front of Maaya-san; if he did she definitely won't like him." Explained Sakura.

"You mean getting him to give her flowers and stuff." Agreed Sasuke.

"I knew you would understand, Sasuke-kun!" Said a happy Sakura with hearts as eyes and beaming at her Sasuke-kun.

"What are you guys doing?" Asked Kakashi who had sneaked up behind them, and then noticed that they stopped talking when they heard his voice, "has this got anything to do with me?"

"No… no of course not!" said them all in unison.

"Hmmm I wonder…." Said Kakashi.

"Wait a minute! You're earlier than usual today! But you're still late!" Shouted Naruto, changing the subject.

Kakashi just laughed this off and started walking out the gates and heading towards the forest, while his three students followed him. He was a little suspicious about what they were talking about but he dismissed it thinking it had something to do with his mask and face.

"What are we doing today Kakashi-sensei?" Asked Naruto, and before Kakashi could answer Naruto added, "Where's Maaya-san today? You should have asked her to train with us."

"Yes you should have Kakashi-sensei; she seems really nice and pretty." Sakura nodded her head enthusiastically.

"Maaya-san is busy training today, why would you want Maaya-san to train with us?" Kakashi asked suspiciously.

Sakura saved the day again with her fast thinking, "well, we haven't seen her fight in the jonin exams yet so we were just curious."

Kakashi thought that her excuse was quite plausible, "Okay then, well today I'm going to teach you how to control your chakra better."

"Why do we have to train in the forest?" Asked Naruto.

"Because it's the best place to train." Said Kakashi with a tone that ended the conversation, he took out his book and started to read while leading them to a spot in the forest.

After a few minutes of silence and they had made their way deeper into the forest, Kakashi sensed something and stopped, Sakura and Naruto were left wondering why he had come to a halt, but Sasuke knew the reason.

"Do you sense that weird chakra Kakashi-sensei?" Sasuke asked his teacher causing Naruto and Sakura to focus on sensing what Sasuke was talking about.

"Yes I sense it too." Kakashi then took out a kunai and cut his thumb letting himself bleed a little, he shouted "Summoning jutsu!" and placed his hand to the ground where smoke had come from the place where he had his hand; as the smoke slowly drifted away to reveal a cute little puppy.

"Pukkan go and check out what's the source of this weird Chakra pattern." Said Kakashi addressing the little dog; whom obediently left them heading towards the weird chakra.

"What should we do?" Asked Sakura quietly and a little scared.

"We'll wait until Pukkan gets back and see what he says." Said Kakashi wisely, "I've never felt anything like this before." He looked at his students, Sakura looked a little scared and Sasuke and Naruto had determined looks on their face, Kakashi began to think to himself,_ I hope they don't do anything stupid, this chakra is so erratic; this opponent is too strong for them. _

Pukkan came back within minutes looking a little confused about what he had seen in the forest, "I think you should come with me and check this out." He said gruffly.

They followed the little dog through the forest, he may look like a little dog but he moved fast, the 3 genins had to try their hardest to keep up.

When they reached their destination, which was a clearing in the forest surrounded by tall trees, there was a large rock in the middle of the clearing and a figure stood in front of it.

Kakashi, Pukkan and team 7 hid in the trees using its leaves to give themselves extra camouflage. They saw a figure standing in front of the rock, dressed in a red kimono with white flowers on it.

"One more time." She said whilst panting, "Fire when you're ready."

A second passed and then the same weird chakra pattern could be felt, and from out of nowhere thousands of chakra shards came flying towards her, these were not unlike the ones Janika Caturo used when he fought in the jonin exams.

The figure jump and dodged every single one, letting them hit the rock which she stood in front of causing holes to appear in it.

"Who is that woman? If only we could get closer we could see her better." Naruto said ready to jump and move closer.

It was Pukkan who stopped him, "Don't get any closer, she's dangerous. So far I can tell is that she is able to dodge all those attacks without the use of her own chakra. That is not something most ninjas can do."

"I don't need some dog telling me what to do!" Said Naruto arrogantly.

"I'M NOT JUST SOME DOG! I'LL SHOW YOU WHAT THIS DOG CAN DO!" Yelled Pukkan who jumped at Naruto trying to bite him, causing them to both fall out of the tree landing with a loud band on the floor, Kakashi jumped down along with them noticing that this would get the figures attention, he didn't want Naruto to face her on his own.

The figure looked up to see what had caused the noise, breaking her concentration, she looked up to see Kakashi and his team, "What are you doing here?" at that moment the attacks continued and she wasn't ready. The attack crashed down on her and subsided within seconds leaving her pressed against the rock in a defensive stance.

"Maaya?" Said Kakashi in disbelief, watching her as her figure slid gently down the rock whilst breathing hard.

"I'm so sorry Maaya-sama!" Said a voice of the attacker, "I didn't mean for the attack to continue," the voice was of a creature which Kakashi assumed was her summoning beast.

The creature was a dragon, who made its way slowly over to Maaya with worried eyes, and gently let its head rest in Maaya's lap. Maaya hand gently touch the head of the creature and said, "It's alright it wasn't your fault."

"Are you hurt?" It said.

"I'll be fine," Maaya said whilst smiling and then getting up shakily, and looked over at Kakashi and his team. "What are you guys doing here?"

"We're here to train, Maaya-san!" Said Naruto who was just glad that she was here so he could execute his plan, "We didn't know you were going to be here too." He said whilst running over to Maaya, the little dragon had wrapped itself around Maaya's right arm and was growling at Naruto.

All the team made their way over to Maaya and greeted them, Kakashi looked Maaya over. She wore a long red kimono that had a white ribbon around the waist, and had white flowers over it as the design, the kimono had a slit up from the bottom of the skirt part to her mid thigh where she had a pouch which held her ninja equipment in, she looked stunning.

"Are you alright? We didn't mean to disturb you." Said Kakashi gently reaching out to touch her but the dragon jumped quickly in the between them.

"What do you think you're doing?" It growled protectively.

"Don't be so rude!" said Maaya to her little dragon, then she turned back to Kakashi, "I'm fine."

The dragon had now uncurled itself from around Maaya's arm and was now sniffing at Pukkan, they exchanged suspicious glares. It then started circling Pukkan making Pukkan dizzy.

"Kiki stop that!" Maaya rushed over to the dragon and picked him up, "You're being such a big bully, go home." The dragon looked angry but obeyed giving Maaya a little kiss on the cheek before disappearing in a puff of smoke.

"I'm really sorry about Kiki, he's a little overprotective and he's not used to strangers." Said Maaya smiling before turning to the little dog on the ground, "and who are you, cutie?" she kneel next to the puppy and before the little dog could reply she had picked him up and rested him on her lap stroking behind his ear.

"Erm… you might not want to do that, Pukkan doesn't liked to be stroked." Said Kakashi, "the last time I tried to do it, he bit me."

Maaya stopped stroking the dog and looked down at it, it had little hearts for eyes and it was blushing happily with all the attention, "I'm sure he won't bite me," said Maaya cheerfully, "you're such a little cutie Pukkan!" and she tickled his belly causing him to laugh.

Kakashi looked at the scene, Pukkan has never allowed anyone to touch him in that way before and now he was enjoying it and seemed really happy, he made his way over to them and kneel down too and reached out to touch Pukkan who looked up quickly and snapped his teeth at Kakashi, causing Maaya to laugh but she stopped stroking Pukkan.

"Is Pukkan one of your summoning creatures?" Maaya asked Kakashi.

"Yeah, he's cute until he starts talking." Joked Kakashi, making Maaya laugh.

"Hey! I'm still here you know!" Shouted Pukkan, causing Maaya to laugh harder.

Maaya started to stand up but as she rose to her feet she felt a sharp pain in her right shoulder. She clutched at it and sank to her knees, Kakashi saw this and went down with her holding her by her forearms.

"What's wrong? I thought you said you weren't hurt." Said Kakashi.

"I said that I would be fine," said Maaya smiling, "Kiki has gotten so strong, next time I'll have to make sure that I don't get hit."

"We should get you to the hospital," said Kakashi and he started to pick her up by wrapping his arm around her waist and pulling her to her feet, "Come on."

"Kakashi-sensei what about our training?" asked Naruto, who suddenly got hit on the head my Sakura and Sasuke who had been watching the way Maaya-san had been talking to their sensei, it was clear that he cared a lot about her and this would be the perfect chance to get them 2 alone together.

"It's okay, I can heal myself," Maaya said whilst smiling and then looking at Kakashi and their position, "Erm, Kakashi-san?"

"Yes, Maaya-san?"

"I can't heal myself when I'm so close to you." She said whilst blushing, everyone but Kakashi had noticed that he was still holding her with his arm around her waist so that their bodies were skimming each others.

Kakashi quickly let go of Maaya's body and blushed deep red, Maaya did a few hand seals with her hands and her body started glowing, after a few seconds the glowing stopped and Maaya looked refreshed and healthy again.

"Maaya-san did you learn that from old granny Tsunade?" shouted Naruto who was running over to them.

"Old granny Tsunade?" Maaya laughed, she hadn't met anyone who called Tsunade that and still lived and added "Yes I did, years ago."

"I was wondering if you would like to train with us Maaya-san." Said Sakura with a lot of hope in her voice, she had also come closer to Maaya-san and had now pulled out her secret weapon, big green puppy dog eyes which were extremely hard to say no to.

"Erm, sure," said Maaya and when Sakura, Naruto and Sasuke did a high five she looked over at Kakashi who shrugged his shoulders as if to say, I have no idea what they are up to.

"So what are you guys training on then?" Asked Maaya, she didn't know Kakashi very well but he didn't look like the teaching type, it would be funny to see how he handled 3 kids.

"Kakashi-sensei is going to teach us how to control our chakra better." Said Naruto.

"And how is Kakashi-sensei going to teach you this?" Maaya said to the kids and was obviously teasing their sensei.

Kakashi smiled at Maaya making his eye curl upwards innocently, "I'm going to be throwing these rocks at you, and you're going to be deflecting them."

"That's easy Kakashi-sensei!" Said an arrogant Naruto.

"Wait, I haven't finished," continued Kakashi, "You're going to be blindfolded and the rocks will contain a small amount of my chakra. You are going to be deflecting them using your own chakra."

All three students looked at their sensei clearly not understanding the importance or the difficulty in the exercise. Maaya thought to herself, _that's very clever, by using a set amount of chakra you should be able to deflect any other chakra attacks, yet only the right amount of chakra repels attacks, any other amount will attract them. I guess I should have expected something like this from the great copy ninja Hatake Kakashi._

"What do you think Maaya?" Kakashi looked over at a seemingly impressed Maaya.

"Just don't be too hard on them." She laughed back and moved to sit in the shade of the tree ready to watch them train.

"Naruto you're first, put this blindfold on and get ready for my attack. You should be able to sense where the rocks are. You should be able to deflect my attacks if you put just the right amount of chakra into your defence." Explained Kakashi.

Sakura and Sasuke walked over to Maaya who had sat down with Pukkan in her lap sleeping softly.

"This is such a waste of time." Muttered Sasuke, causing Maaya to look up at him, he looked a little moody but he always seemed that way, and it was the first time she had heard his speak.

"It is actually quite a good exercise; in theory chakra can be deflected by chakra, so if someone were to attack you using a chakra attack like the rasengan or the chidori, if you placed the right amount of chakra to counter attack then it should be able to deflect it." Said Maaya as she watched Kakashi throw rocks at Naruto, who had managed to deflect some of the rock but missing a few which hit him.

This caused Sasuke to look up; he thought to himself, _can it really be that simple, if I learnt this technique then I could be able to beat Naruto's attack yet if Naruto learned this then he could deflect my Chidori. If it was really true then how come I've never seen anyone else use this before._

"Although it may take years to master this aspect, but it's a good thing to learn." Said Maaya eventually, sensing the doubt in Sasuke.

"Maaya-san what do you think of Kakashi-sensei?" asked Sakura who was more bothered about her sensei's love life than how she was going to get through her training session.

"What do you mean?" asked Maaya slightly taken aback.

"Kakashi-sensei is strong and smart, and he is probably really cute under that mask." Said Sakura trying to persuade Maaya that Kakashi was a good catch, however her method wasn't as discreet as she hoped.

"Sakura-san do you have a crush on Kakashi-sensei?" Asked Maaya.

Sakura went red and shouted, "I would never like a pervert like Kakashi-sensei!" and then she seemed to think about what she said, "Erm…but he's really nice." Sakura then glanced at Sasuke who didn't even seem to notice what they had said, it was then that Maaya realised that Sakura had a crush on her team mate not her teacher. Though she was a little confused about why Sakura said all those things about Kakashi.

"Ah I understand, it's not Kakashi-san that you like is it?" Maaya said causing Sakura to blush.

Then Kakashi and Naruto came over, Naruto looked a little rough since he didn't manage to deflect all the rocks he had got hit by most of them.

"Come here Naruto-san and I'll heal you." Said Maaya, she rested her hand on top of Naruto's head and passed her chakra into him causing all his bruises and wounds to heal within seconds, "you should be more careful." She said as she dusted his clothes.

Naruto smiled he had never been treated this way, he had never really been taken care of by anyone else before, Maaya was so nice and lovely, she and Kakashi-sensei would make the greatest couple ever.

"Kakashi I want you to show me the true power behind the exercise! Is it true that you can deflect the chidori is you can master this technique!" Shouted Sasuke, seemingly not believing what Maaya had told him.

Kakashi sighed, "What have you been saying to him Maaya-san?"

"I just told him that in theory you could use this method to deflect high power ninjutsu's like the chidori. I didn't mean it to get out of hand, I'm sorry." Said Maaya while looking at the determined face of Sasuke; knowing that he wouldn't let this rest until he got his answers.

"Is she right? Is that true?" Asked Naruto.

"Yes in theory that could happen but I've never met anyone who can do it before, it takes years and years of practice." Said Kakashi.

"Well I'm not believing it until I see it," said Sasuke, "I knew that this was a waste of time."

"I'll show you how it's done, if you want me to Sasuke." Maaya said finally, she had caused this argument so she felt that she had to end it also, "and if it's okay with you Kakashi-san."

"Maaya-san I don't think it's a good idea…" Kakashi started but was cut off.

"Don't worry I know what I'm doing, I won't hurt him," smiled Maaya, "so Sasuke are you going to show me your chidori?"

Sasuke got up and walked into the middle of the clearing facing Maaya. He called on his sharingan and his chakra which filled his palm causing a blue glow looking like lightning, he was determined to put all his energy into it and prove this woman wrong, he couldn't allow her to say that someone could just deflect his chidori by practising this stupid exercise.

He ran towards her with his hand aimed at her, Maaya closed her eyes and raised one hand with her palm facing Sasuke. She felt Sasuke's chakra and called upon her own to deflect it. Once Sasuke reached Maaya, she released her own chakra which countered Sasuke's attack and sent Sasuke flying backwards landing on his back.

Maaya hadn't moved from her spot and she slowly lowered her arm. "Do you believe me now? All I did was released the right amount of chakra at the right time and your attack was deflected. Kakashi-san isn't making you do this exercise to waste time."

"How did it take you to learn how to do it?" Sasuke said.

"Years, but it's worth it, once you learn how to do it then you'll never forget it." She help Sasuke up, "I didn't hurt you did I?"

"Sakura you're up next," Said Kakashi moving into the clearing whilst Maaya and Sasuke walked to the edge to the tree that they had been sitting under at the beginning, Kakashi glanced at Maaya, and she smiled back at him.

Naruto was already sitting under the tree next to Pukkan as Maaya and Sasuke reached them, "Maaya-san have you got a boyfriend?" Asked a cheerful Naruto causing all 3 of them to look at him, and causing Kakashi to stop throwing stones at Sakura to listen to the answer.

"No I don't have a boyfriend, Naruto," Said Maaya, "why do you ask?"

"No reason, I'm just wondering, because you're such a nice person." Answered Naruto, happy that he got the answer he was looking for.

Maaya sat down to watch Sakura, who was doing better than Naruto, she may be the weakest physically but she was the best with her chakra control, at the end of her session only a few stones at hit her, she came back over smiling widely and let Maaya heal her.

"Sasuke you're up." Said Kakashi.

And Sasuke and Kakashi left the shade and walked into the clearing, Sasuke determined than ever to learn how to do this.

Naruto and Sakura sat on their own talking about Maaya and their sensei.

"I think Maaya-san likes Kakashi-sensei too," Said Sakura, "I know that Kakashi-sensei likes Maaya-san."

"Okay then how do we get them together?" asked Naruto

"Well I don't think either of them will make a move so it's up to us."

"Okay. How do we do it?"

"Just follow my lead."

They headed towards Maaya and Sakura spoke first out of the two, "so Maaya-san don't you wish you had a boyfriend like Kakashi-sensei?" Maaya just sat there looking from Naruto and Sakura and then at the figure of their sensei behind them.

Kakashi had heard all their conversation, now he knew that the whispering concerned him and Maaya, they were trying to set him up with Maaya. He cleared his throat to get his students attention. Their heads turned around slowly with panicked faces and said, "Hello Kakashi-sensei, we were just talking to Maaya-san."

"I can see that, now what were you talking about? I hope it doesn't concern me." He said stonily.

The students look like they were struggling to find an excuse, so Maaya took pity on them and decided to try and change the subject. "It's nearly noon maybe we should go back to the village and get something to eat." Said Maaya getting up still holding Pukkan who wasn't complaining.

Kakashi looked over at her and smiled innocently, he had only been joking with his students, but of course they didn't know when he was being serious or not. "Sure, I'll treat you guys to ramen." He said causing Naruto to cheer.

All three students let out a breathe of relief, thank god Maaya had been there to stop Kakashi-sensei doing something bad to them, but at least this confirmed that Kakashi-sensei liked Maaya-san, they all headed back to the village for lunch.


	13. Chapter 13

Disclaimer; I do not own any of the naruto characters although I wish I did.

Read and review

Author notes: _Thoughts_

When they got to the Ichiraku Ramen stand someone familiar was sat there eating lunch already.

"Iruka-sensei, what are you doing here?" said Naruto cheerily happy that he had seen his all time favourite teacher.

"I'm eating lunch of course." He replied, then he noticed the crowd, "Hello Kakashi-sensei, Sakura, Sasuke and Maaya-san." He hadn't expected to see her with them.

"How do you know Maaya-san Iruka-sensei?" asked Sakura.

"We've met before," he smiled at Maaya who looked embarrassed and slightly ashamed.

"About that, I'm really sorry for what happened." Maaya said quietly, not able to look him in the eyes, she remembered him to be one of the people she had hurt on her arrival in konoha.

"There's no need to apologize, I think it'll be for the best to just start anew." Smiled Iruka at the girl, she looked up to meet his eyes and smiled sweetly at him.

"Thank you." She said with a little bow. Iruka sat there thinking that she was actually nicer than she seemed on that day; she was much prettier too especially in the red and white kimono.

"Oh and Kotetsu and Izumo told me to tell you thank you for healing them and that they would be training in the stadium if you would like to join them later on." Said Iruka.

"I'm glad they are alright," and Maaya sat down and ordered with everyone else, until she noticed that Kakashi didn't, "aren't you eating Kakashi-san?"

"Nope, I'm on a diet." He winked at Maaya and then took out his book and propped it up against the table to read.

All team 7 and Maaya sighed, it definitely wasn't easy to see Kakashi's real face. Iruka laughed at the scene, he hadn't known that this girl had gotten so close to Naruto and his team.

"So Maaya-san, have you heard about the summer festival?" said Iruka-sensei.

"Summer festival? I've never heard about it," She said, "when is it?"

"Next week, before the second round of the jonin exams take place." said Kakashi who had looked up from his book.

"You should go Maaya-san, but you'll need a date." Chirped in Naruto.

"Date? Is it a boyfriend/girlfriend thing?" asked Maaya.

"No but it's always nice to share the experience with someone." Said Iruka-sensei.

"Oh, what do you wear to the summer festival?"

"Usually a traditional kimono kind of like the one you're wearing." Said Sakura.

Maaya was getting a little uncomfortable with the way the 3 genins were looking at her, but thankfully the food came and she said, "Well the foods here we should eat, no talking just eating." She grabbed the chopsticks and shovelled the food into her mouth whilst getting glares from the genins and Iruka and Kakashi, who all had sweat drops on their foreheads.

Kakashi grinned under his mask, she was so uncomfortable with the conversation and she looked so cute when she was nervous. She even looked adorable when she was shovelling ramen into her mouth, not a look most women could pull off. He was staring at her from over his book until he heard a small voice that belonged to the waitress at the ramen stand called Ayame.

"Erm…. Would you… like to," she blushed and stuttered, "go to the festival… with me?" she had gone bright red now.

Kakashi looked at the girl, this was totally unexpected but he knew that she was asking him out because she had seen his face last time when his students had tried to trick him into showing his face. She hadn't taken a liking to him before she had seen his face and so he sighed.

"I'm sorry but I'm already planning to go with someone else." Said Kakashi gracefully and tactfully, he really didn't want to hurt the girl she was young and didn't need to be in love with someone like him.

The girl just stammered thanks and rushed into the back of the shop, everyone was staring at Kakashi now, Iruka and his students knew that Kakashi didn't go out on many dates so this was rare for him.

"Who's this mystery girl then, Kakashi?" said Iruka.

"Hmm, just someone you don't know." He said in reply not even looking up from the book.

Maaya had finished eating first, and was itching to go find Kotetsu and Izumo so she stood up and paid. "I'll see you around then." Said Maaya looking from Iruka, then at team 7 and then at Kakashi, "Thank you for letting me train with you this morning, it was fun."

"Wait and we'll come with you," said Kakashi whilst putting his book away and getting up.

"That alright I know my way to the stadium and I've taken up enough of your time anyway, thank you," she said, "Nice seeing you again Kakashi-sensei, Iruka-sensei and Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke."

"But wait!" Said Naruto but she had disappeared.

Kakashi sat back down and sighed, and thought to himself, _did I just blow it? Why did I have to say that stuff about another girl, DAMMIT I'm so stupid sometimes._

The others noticed that Kakashi looked really disappointed to see Maaya go; Iruka asked Naruto "Is there something going on with Maaya-san and Kakashi-sensei?"

"We thought that Kakashi-sensei liked Maaya-san but now I'm not so sure, I didn't know Kakashi-sensei had a girlfriend already, he's never mentioned her, but then again he never tells us anything." Answered Naruto in a whisper making sure that Kakashi couldn't hear them talking about her.

"Maybe he was lying about the other girl," said Iruka and then he decided to test how Kakashi would react to some gossip he had heard this morning so he said very loudly, "I heard that Gai-sensei is planning to ask Maaya-san to the festival."

Kakashi's ears pricked at their names, Gai and Maaya? There was no way that he was going to allow Gai to go out with Maaya, and knowing Maaya even if she didn't want to go with him she'd say yes out of politeness.

"I think he's been waiting at the stadium for her all morning." Continued Iruka glancing at Kakashi every 2 seconds to see if his expression has changed, he wasn't sure but Iruka thought he saw Kakashi's fist clench at the thought of Gai and Maaya going out together.

When everyone had finished with their meal, Kakashi paid because he said he would treat them and Iruka had to get back to the school for classes as he taught in the ninja academy.

"Where are you going now Kakashi-sensei?" asked Sakura.

"We're going to the stadium," all his three students' jaws dropped, thinking that maybe what Iruka-sensei had said has made him want to make sure Gai hasn't got to Maaya yet, but then Kakashi added, "Izumo and Kotetsu are good friends of mine, we can go and make sure he's okay. And seeing the chunin train might improve your skills anyway."

* * *

Maaya reached the stadium in record time and walked into the arena which they had used to fight in the day before. It was clean and all the holes and craters that had been caused by yesterdays fight were gone. She looked around and looked at the people who were there.

Only Janika, Mattike, Kotetsu, Izumo and Samato and his girlfriend were here, Maaya figured that the other contestants didn't want to train in front of their opponents but since the people here were all friends on some level, so it was okay for them to hang around together.

"Hi Izumo-san, Kotetsu-san!" she ran over to them where they were resting after sparing with one another.

They looked up to see Maaya's smiling face and it instantly cheered them up, after she had healed them they had developed some kind of feelings for her. They remembered how soft and warm she had been when she passed her chakra through them to heal them and it felt incredible.

She strolled over, "I see you guys have been training." Both of them had taken off their shirts due to the heat, "I'm glad to see guys are alright."

"I'm only here to help Kotetsu; he needed a sparing partner so I volunteered." Said Izumo getting up to greet Maaya and smiling.

"Are you alright with not getting into the next round?" Said Maaya softly.

"Yeah I'm okay with it; I can always take part next time." Laughed Izumo; coming over and to Maaya and then ruffling her hair again.

"DON'T DO THAT!" She shouted desperately trying to sort out her hair again causing both men to laugh affectionately.

"You're looking very nice today Maaya-Chan." Said the voice of Janika Caturo from behind her, who was coming over to them with Mattike alongside him.

"Thanks and hello Janika-san and Mattike-san." She smiled at them.

"Where did you go this morning? We went to look for you?" Said Kotetsu.

"You guys were looking for me?"

"Yeah, we got Mattike and Janika to join in too. You thought that big dude kappa got you to or something." Answered Izumo.

"I'm sorry I didn't know you guys were looking for me, I went to ask Tsunade-sama where a good place to train would be, and she told me to go to the forest," Said Maaya, "Why didn't she tell me about this place. I bet she just wanted to get her own back since I woke her up at 5:00am. You guys didn't have to worry about me though."

"You didn't hear about it did you?" said Kotetsu.

"Hear about what?"

"One of the chunin who passed into the second round was found last night beaten up badly, and now he's in the hospital, we're not even sure if he will be able to fight in the second rounds." Said Izumo.

"What? How could that happen? Who did it?" said Maaya, and then thought about what they had said a second ago, "you think Kappa Hingra did it?"

"Well maybe, no one can be sure because there were no witnesses and the victim hasn't waked up yet." Said Janika who was a little too relaxed, although you could tell he was angry at whoever could be despicable enough to do such a thing.

"By the way why are you dressed like that?" said Izumo, "not that it's not nice, but the festival isn't for another week or so."

"I went shopping this morning before I went to train, and don't talk about the festival to me I don't want to talk about it." Said Maaya and sat down sighing.

"What festival?" Asked Janika. "I've never about it before."

"The summer festival is next week, it's quite fun actually," He said whilst looking at Maaya who looked depressed, "what's so bad about the festival Maaya?"

"Everything's bad about it, stupid, stupid festival," And she started to mumble a lot of other stuff to herself that everyone else couldn't hear. They all looked at each other trying to make out what she was saying.

"So what's this festival like? What do we wear and stuff?" Said Janika in his casual style.

"Japanese style dressing, kind of like what Maaya-san is wearing right now but more traditional." Izumo said.

"Are we supposed to bring dates or something?" Said Janika.

"That's your choice, most people do I guess, it's a nice festival for couples and stuff." Said Kotetsu, "a lot of couple orientated activities I guess."

Janika then laughed, "I can see why Maaya's depressed then!" and went and sat down next to her, "do you not have a date?" he said laughing as she looked up at him with big brown watery eyes.

"NO and I don't have a kimono," she wailed and then said, "I just won't go." This caused Janika and the others to laugh harder, "DON'T LAUGH, I'M SERIOUS! YOU GUYS DON'T HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT ALL OF THESE THINGS!" she said and started sulking.

"Janika-san will you spar with me?" Maaya said after a few seconds.

"Erm sure." Janika replied a little surprised and flattered but maybe she just wanted to beat him up for laughing at her, "now?"

"Yes," Maaya said smiling, "Thanks, I wanted to practise my swordsmanship skills and I know you're the best at it."

He blinked whilst she got up and dragged him with her into a clear area where they could fight.

"So you want to only use weapons and taijutsu and no ninjutsu's?" Said Janika.

"Yep those are the rules." And Maaya drew a sword made of chakra which just appeared in her hand.

Janika drew his sword and they faced each other, "should we go on the count of 3?" he said while smirking.

"Go whenever you're ready." Maaya said grinning back at him.

Janika started it by running at Maaya and then jumping into the air and letting his sword go down hard while he fell, Maaya held her sword above and caught the impact. Janika landed and jumped backwards and tried again to attack but it was blocked again and he retreated back again.

"You're pretty good with a sword." Janika said.

"Jealous?" teased Maaya.

"You wish." This time he ran and they clashed swords, then he used his free fist to land a punch into Maaya's gut, who returned the favour by elbowing him hard in the back.

The fight continued they both threw a few good punches which landed on their opponent and they both missed their opponent too.

Janika observed her moves as she attacked and blocked and found a weakness, he soon had Maaya in a head lock with his sword pointed at her neck.

"Give up?" He said breathlessly into her ear.

"Never." And she somehow manoeuvred and was able to land a punch onto Janika which caused him to lie on the ground on his back, with a panting Maaya sat on top of him around the waist pointing her sword at his throat.

"Give up?" she asked playfully, whilst Janika looked around for his sword which was about 5 meters away from him on the ground.

"Maaya-san?" a voice came from the direction of where Izumo, Kotetsu and Mattike were stood watching them. It was Naruto, with Kakashi and the rest of his team, what's more is that Gai and his team was stood there watching too, they had seen Maaya get caught in Janika arms and now they saw her straddle Janika at the waist.

They were wide eyed as the sight of the girl sat on top of her opponent. "Hi, what are you guys doing here?" she asked sheepishly whilst blushing.

Janika looked up at Maaya and followed her gaze towards Kakashi, and thought to himself, _she's blushing because of that weird dude in the mask; I can make her forget about him. _He saw his chance, now that she was distracted he could turn the tables on their situation.

Janika grabbed Maaya at the waist and rolled causing Maaya to be on the bottom and Janika to have her trapped underneath him. It was so sudden that Maaya was caught by surprise and couldn't avoid it, now she was trapped _DAMMIT I was winning a second ago! _

Janika bent his head lower so that his mouth was next to Maaya's ear, his hair tickled her cheek and his warm breathe caused her to shudder, "Come to the festival with me Maaya, if you say yes I'll even go kimono shopping with you." He said cheekily.

"I'll think about it." Maaya said still underneath him, he bent his head closer to her face as if to kiss her, his lips moved closer to hers.

Kakashi and Gai were furious, and they were not the only one's Mattike's fist had clenched so hard that his knuckles were white and Kotetsu and Izumo had ran over there to get Janika off from Maaya.

Maaya was shocked and of course still immobilised but even if she wasn't she didn't know if she would have stopped him moving his head closer to her. It had been so long since anyone had got this close to her, and in some strange way it felt so nice, but at that moment Izumo and Kotetsu grabbed Janika by the arms and threw him from her.

"Are you alright?" said Izumo whilst placing a hand tenderly on her neck as if to see if she had broken anything or if she was actually alive.

"I'm fine, we were only sparring." Maaya said whilst getting up to have Kotetsu run his hands up and down her arms checking for broken bones, "stop it! Stop it, stop touching! That tickles!" and she started laughing as Izumo and Kotetsu dived onto her and attacked her with their tickle attack.

They stopped after a few minutes and she got up trying to look dignified, but not really working, she just looked cute instead. She walked over to Janika and stuck her hand out, which Janika took and shook.

"Good match, I guess next time we fight it'll be for real." Said Maaya and he grinned and made their way over to Kakashi and the others.

"What are you guys doing here? I thought you were eating lunch?" Maaya asked Kakashi, who didn't seem to hear her, instead he reached out to touch her but she took a step back, thinking that if Kakashi was involved with someone else then he shouldn't be reaching out to her in such a way.

"Are you hurt?" he said gently.

"No, I'm fine." She said awkwardly.

"Maaya-Chan!" it was Gai's voice, "I've been looking all over for you, I wanted to ask you if you'd like to go to the summer festival with me." He had taken her hand again and was staring with the fatal puppy dog eyes.

"She's going with me," said Janika.

"What! Why would she go with you, you are her rival and opponent in the jonin exams." Said Gai, he had watched the way he had fought against Maaya, and seeing him on top of her got his angry.

"I'm not going with anyone yet!" said Maaya standing in between the two men, "I don't even know if I'm going." She sighed; this was not her idea of fun.

They continued to argue whilst Maaya held back Gai who looked like he was going to jump and attack Janika any moment. Maaya looked over to Kakashi who was just standing there watching and signalled for him to help her, who went over to them and took Maaya in his arms and disappeared.


	14. Chapter 14

Disclaimer; I do not own any of the naruto characters although I wish I did.

Read and review

Author notes: _Thoughts_

Well when Maaya signalled for Kakashi to help her sort out the little embarrassing situation with Gai and Janika she didn't mean that Kakashi should kidnap her but I guess it got her away from all the commotion.

Kakashi had grabbed Maaya and carried her away, leaving Janika and Gai a little confused but also really angry. Kakashi and Maaya had been jumping rooftops for a few minutes now, Kakashi held Maaya's hand leading her; it wasn't for another few more minutes until they stopped.

"Where are we?" asked Maaya as Kakashi released her hand and walked up to a large stone with names carved onto it, she looked at his expression which was full of regret and sadness causing Maaya to think _what could this stone mean to Kakashi-san to make him so unhappy?_

"This is the memorial stone for those who have lost their lives during missions; they have all died for konoha." Kakashi stood in front of the stone looking down and stood in silence, "I usually come here to think and to be alone."

"Do you know anyone whose name is on it?" Maaya said walking up next to Kakashi.

"Yeah, my best friend Uchiha Obito," said Kakashi looking over at Maaya, "He was the one who gave me his sharingan."

Maaya reached and took Kakashi's hand with her own, her gently touch caused him to look over at her in surprise, she didn't look at him but instead she looked at the rock and said, "It's harder for those who are left behind than those who have left, isn't it?"

Kakashi heard the tone in her voice which contained so much truth and wisdom; she knew how it felt to lose someone you cared about. He reached out his hand to stroke her cheek causing her to look up at him, his hand gently slide down to her neck and he caressed her soft skin with his fingers.

He gently pulled her closer to him longing to hold her, Maaya couldn't help herself, Kakashi was such a nice guy and she couldn't help want to let him care for her, their heads drifted closer until their lips barely touched each others.

The sound of distant thunder woke Maaya to her senses, and she quickly retreated from Kakashi's grip, remembering that it was only earlier today that she had found out that Kakashi was already involved with someone else.

"I'm sorry I didn't mean to do that." Maaya said unable to look Kakashi in the eye.

Kakashi sighed, "I actually had another reason for bringing you here Maaya-san; I needed to talk to you about something."

"You needed to talk to me? What about?" asked Maaya a little confused.

"About the things I said at the ramen stand. I didn't mean to lead you on like that, and I'm sorry."

"Oh," she blushed, "you don't have to be sorry, I don't have any right to tell you who to date and it is not really any of my business."

Kakashi laughed, "You're really cute when you have no idea what I'm talking about."

"STOP LAUGHING AT ME!" shouted Maaya getting angry now, "it's not my fault, you're not explaining things properly… wait… what do you mean when you say I don't have any idea what you're talking about?"

Kakashi laughed more, "I mean that I was lying about the other girl, there is no other girl." He looked at Maaya whose jaw dropped and eyes opened wide in shock.

She opened her mouth to yell at Kakashi but just then a loud BOOM of the thunder caused Maaya to jump and then the rain came pouring down hard causing Maaya to forget about the situation at hand, she was soaked within seconds.

"We should get back," said Kakashi who the noticed that Maaya was shivering slightly, "Come on, you need to get out of the rain or you'll catch a cold or something." And Kakashi walked Maaya back to her home.

They stopped outside her room both dripping wet, and they stood facing each other shyly, "Erm Maaya-san… would you like to go to the festival with me?" asked Kakashi quietly, so quietly that she almost didn't hear it.

Maaya didn't know what to say, she was still a little shocked from what he had said before, and she wasn't sure if he was lying or not, "I… don't know…"

"You don't have to answer me right now, just think about it," said Kakashi quickly, "there was never anyone else but you."

She didn't respond, and Kakashi sighed a little, "I'll see you later then?"

"Sure." Said Maaya smiling, the sight of her smile lightened the mood a little and made his heart melt.

"Great! I'll see you soon." Kakashi smiled and gave Maaya a little kiss on her cheek and left, seemingly happy.

Maaya sighed and walked into her room, she was still dripping and was starting to feel really hot, she placed her own hand on her forehead and released she had a fever.

She thought to herself; _today was a weird day, it's all that stupid festivals fault. I wonder why Janika asked me to the festival._

She started to feel really dizzy so she crawled under the covers of her bed without bothering to dry herself before hand. She sighed and fell asleep.

Mattike had separated himself from Janika, he was a little angry that Janika had asked Maaya to the festival, even though he didn't really want to go he didn't want Maaya to go with him. Janika was his friend but most of all they were rivals.

Also he seriously doubted the purity of Janika's intentions; he had seen the way he acted around other girls too and that made Mattike worry about it even more. If be believed that Janika actually really loved Maaya it wouldn't have bothered him so much but Janika was most likely to get Maaya to fall for him and then leave her. He sighed and continued to train.

"Where do you think Kakashi-sensei and Maaya-san went?" wondered Naruto, "do you think that Maaya-san and that guy she was fighting with are together?"

"No, they can't be, Gai-sensei said that they were rivals in the exam, they can't be together." Said Lee.

Team 7 and Lee were huddled together, and were currently discussing the events of the day.

"But I think that guy asked Maaya to the festival, also Gai-sensei asked her too!" Said Sakura now worried that Kakashi-sensei might not have a chance in getting Maaya-san to go to the festival with him.

"Of course Gai-sensei asked her! Gai-sensei says Maaya-san is the perfect example of youth and that they were meant to be together and spend the rest of their springtime of youth happy and in love." Said Lee; with fire in his eyes at the mention of his sensei.

"Maaya-san and Kakashi-sensei are meant to be together!" shouted Naruto.

"Maaya-san and Gai-sensei!" argued Lee.

"Kakashi-sensei!"

"Gai-sensei!"

"Maybe Kakashi-sensei took Maaya-san away today so that he could ask her to go to the festival with him." Said Sakura trying to change the subject, "but Kakashi-sensei said that he has already got someone to go with, what do you think Sasuke-kun?"

"I think Kakashi-sensei was lying about the other woman, I've never heard of it before today, I think that he was just saying it as an excuse to make that waitress go away." Said Sasuke with a lot of wisdom, out of all his students he knew Kakashi-sensei the best and was closer to him than any of the others.

"Iruka-sensei said the same thing." Said Naruto.

"Maaya-san should not go out with a man who lies!" shouted Lee.

"Well she shouldn't go out with a man with big fuzzy eyebrows!" shouted Naruto who was shaking his fist at Lee, who seemed to have had enough of arguing and walked off.

"Should we get Maaya-san to come train with us tomorrow too?" asked Naruto when Lee was out of sight.

"Yeah we should and then Kakashi-sensei would definitely have a chance to ask Maaya-san to the festival." Said Sakura.


	15. Chapter 15

Disclaimer; I do not own any of the naruto characters although I wish I did. )

Read and review

Author notes: _Thoughts_

_**Flashbacks**_

Maaya woke up the next morning with a pounding in her head and also at her door too.

"Maaya-san Are you in there!" the voice Naruto came from the other side of the closed door, she signed and clutched at her hair which felt like it was on fire, she had wanted to lie in today and sleep her fever off but it didn't look like that was going to happen.

Maaya let her chakra flow through her hand and onto her forehead trying to heal the pain until another loud knock disturbed her and broke off her healing jutsu, "Maaya-SAN! We know you're in there!" shouted Sakura.

Maaya groaned and rolled off the bed and crawled to the door, once she reached it she used to door handle to steady herself as she stood up and opened to door slowly to see three faces stare up at her.

"Good Morning," Sasuke, Naruto and Sakura said in unison.

"Morning," yawned Maaya, "what are you guys doing here?"

"We were wondering if you'd like to train with us again today Maaya-san." Said Sakura unleashing her puppy dog eyes again, Maaya looked down at them a little scared, and thought _what are they trying to pull, is this some sort of prank? And where's Kakashi-san._

"Have you asked your sensei if I could join you?" asked Maaya knowing that Kakashi would not have been awake yet so they probably wouldn't have had a chance to ask him, therefore it was the perfect scapegoat.

"Erm," the three genins looked at each other out of the corner of their eyes, "of course we asked him and he said yes." Said Naruto nervously; obviously lying.

Maaya stared down at the 3 faces which looked a little less happy and a little more uncomfortable now, "Now we all know that's not the truth," then she sighed, "You're such a bad liar Naruto."

"But… but please come and train with us." Said Naruto almost in tears.

"Okay, I'll make you a deal, if you can find Kakashi-sensei and ask him if I can train with us guys today then I'll go train with you." Said Maaya.

"Alright, we can do that, we'll be back in a few minutes!" shouted Naruto and all three of them ran away in separate directions in search for their sensei.

Maaya sighed again, and closed her door and went back to sleep, she was confident that they wouldn't be able to find their sensei for at least a good hour.

Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke stood at the gates of Konoha out of breathe and clearly annoyed that they couldn't find their sensei, they had searched absolutely everywhere for him after not finding him at his house.

"Where is Kakashi-sensei!" yelled a frustrated Naruto.

"I dunno, he usually sleeps in until noon, it's really strange that he was there this morning." Said Sakura who was too tired to argue or punch Naruto.

"How are we going to find him?" said Naruto sadly, "if we don't find him then Maaya-san won't train with us."

"There is a another way to find him," said Sasuke quietly, "we can let him come to us, we're supposed to be meeting him to train anyway, and when he comes then we can ask him about Maaya-san."

"Oh Sasuke-kun is so smart, that is the perfect plan, I don't even remember why we went to get Maaya-san so early in the morning anyway." Said Sakura whilst her eyes beamed at Sasuke.

"It was that idiot's idea." Said Sasuke looking at Naruto and completely ignoring Sakura's adoring eyes.

"Fine we'll wait here for Kakashi-sensei to show up then we'll go back to find Maaya-san." Said Naruto.

A few hours later Maaya woke up refreshed and healthy again, she looked over at her clock, it was noon. It had been 4 hours since the 3 genins had come to find her and they still haven't come back yet, maybe they just couldn't find their sensei. She began to think _oh well, I guess since they won't find him then I should go and train on my own. _

She got up and yawned and went through her usual morning routine which involved taking a shower and getting changed and other such mundane things. She was nearly out her door when she had a sudden prick of guilt, so just in case Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke actually comes back she would leave them a note saying that she would be training in the forests outside konoha.

Maaya walked into the village, it was a normal busy day, people everywhere smiling and chatting; a place where everyone knew each other and no one was a stranger. Maaya sighed and thought _this is the kind of place I would like to live. _

A loud noise then broke her out of the trance and she looked up to see Rock Lee and his fuzzy eyebrows running desperately trying to catch up with her leaving chaos in his wake.

"Maaya-san, wait up!" shouted Lee whilst Maaya froze at the scene of the carnage, and Lee slid to a halt in front of her, "How are you Maaya-san?"

Maaya was shocked, but quickly found her voice, "I am fine, and how are you Lee-san?"

"I'm really happy to see you, and I bet Gai-sensei would be very glad too." And before Maaya could protest Lee grabbed her by the hand and dragged her towards the gates of Konoha where it was probable that Gai-sensei and the rest of Lee's team would be waiting.

"Lee you're late, where have you been?" asked TenTen, it was pretty unusual for lee to be late when his favourite sensei asked them to meet.

"Look who I found!" said an excited Lee, who pulled Maaya forward smiling sheepishly.

"Maaya-Chan!" shouted Gai-sensei from behind his pupils, "The mere sight of you brightens my day!"

"Erm… hello everyone," said Maaya who then spotted Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke standing in the distance, without their sensei, "so what are you guys doing today?"

"We're going to train in the forests." Said Lee, he had hoped that Maaya would join them and then Gai-sensei and Maaya-san could get to know each other better.

"Then I won't be keeping you, have fun." Said Maaya taking a step back, trying to slip away slowly.

"But Maaya-san I was hoping that you would join us." Said Lee hopefully.

"That's a great idea my youthful pupil, Maaya-san will join us in our training today!" Shouted Gai already taking Maaya's hand to drag her with them.

"HEY FUZZY EYEBROWS, what are you doing with Maaya-san!" Shouted Naruto who spotted them and was now rushing over.

"Maaya-san is going to be training with us today." Chirped Lee whilst thinking _mwhahahaha Gai-sensei and Maaya-san will definitely be in love by the end of today and Kakashi-sensei won' t have a chance._

"But she's training with us!" Shouted Naruto.

They stood in stalemate for the next 5 minutes whilst Maaya stood there sighing trying to think of a reasonable answer to stop Naruto and Lee fighting, until a idea popped into her head.

"Why don't we all train together?" suggested Maaya trying to keep the peace.

"That is a good idea Maaya-Chan, I would have not expected anything else from such a smart and beautiful woman, however my eternal rival is not here yet." Said Gai.

"Well we can wait for him, I'm sure he won't be much longer." Maaya said hopefully, whilst Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke looked at one another feeling doomed, they had no idea when their sensei would turn up.

"I'm not sure, this will disrupt our training session." Said Gai, "but I would tolerate his lateness for you, Maaya-Chan."

They stood around for the next hour, Gai checked his watch every 5 minutes, Naruto and Lee had their backs turned to each other. TenTen, Neji, Sakura and Sasuke were stood in a little crowd making small talk and Maaya paced from one side to the gates of konoha to the other side, thinking _please get here soon, please, please, please. _

"That is it, it's been over an hour we've got to get going now Maaya-Chan." Said Gai.

"Alright then," said Maaya then turned to face Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke, "I guess I'll be going then, sorry about not being able to train with you guys today."

As Gai and his team including Maaya turned to walk away from team 7 they heard a familiar voice.

"Sorry that I'm late, but I got lost on the road of life." Said Kakashi with his hand scratching the back of his head cheerfully, unaware of his surroundings. Naruto and Sakura were about to shout at him for being so late but Maaya beat them to it.

"YOU'RE LATE!" shouted Maaya pointed at Kakashi accusingly.

"Hello Maaya-san, what are you doing here?" said Kakashi innocently whilst ignoring the fact that Maaya looked incredibly angry.

"Kakashi-sensei please say Maaya-san can train with us today!" said Naruto and Sakura in unison.

"Of course Maaya-san can train with us," then he turned to Maaya, "you're always welcome to train with us." His words caused Maaya to blush a little.

"Ah my eternal rival has finally shown up, you know it is very rude of you to keep a lady waiting." Said Gai a little annoyed that he had shown up, this meant that they would have to all train together.

"Did you say something Gai?" asked Kakashi never taking his eyes of Maaya, "I apologize for being late Maaya-san, if I had known that you would have been here then I would have come extra early." He smiled under his mask making his eye curl upwards.

This statement from Kakashi caused Maaya to laugh back at Kakashi, "It's hard to imagine you being early for once Kakashi-san."

"So Maaya-san will be training with us today!" said Naruto whilst pulling a face at Lee in victory.

"Maaya-san is training with us!" shouted Lee back.

"Come on now boys, I thought we were going to train together." Said Maaya trying to calm down the kids, "it's the best idea, isn't it Gai-san?"

Gai looked at Maaya who was beaming at him with big brown eyes; he melted and agreed with her. Kakashi didn't like the idea but at least he could keep an eye on Gai so he was sure that he wouldn't make any moves on Maaya.

Maaya sat watching TenTen spar with Sakura, and Neji spar with Sasuke, Naruto and Lee had taken a little break and was now sitting with Maaya and their senseis in the shade. Maaya sat between Gai and his pupil and Kakashi and his, of course only she showed any boredom at all, Kakashi was sat reading Icha Icha Paradise and Gai was yelling tips at the sparring genin.

Maaya stood up abruptly thinking that this day wasn't going to be a total waste and she was going to get some training done. Standing up caused Kakashi and Gai to both looked up at her, "I'm just going some place quieter to train, come find me if you need me," Gai looked as if he was going to object, "I'll be fine, I won't be far away and I can look after myself." With that sentence she walked into the trees to look for another clearing.

Maaya stood next to a little river thinking that it would be the perfect place to practise her water jutsu; she stood and trained for about 30 minutes until her concentration was broken by a scream coming from the direction of where the genins were training.

She ran into the forest, jumping from branch to branch she reached where Kakashi and Gai were within minutes, still above them she looked down to see what had happened, it could have been some stupid little thing which may have scared the girls or something.

Maaya couldn't see anything suspicious, and was just about to reveal herself until she suddenly felt a familiar chakra pattern leaking from the ground below her friends.

Then it happened, a loud bang set of what seemed like a large explosion causing dust and sand to fly everywhere. Screams came from the genins who hadn't moved fast enough to avoid the attack and were now trapped encased within a large binding boulder of rock with only their heads exposed.

Kakashi and Gai had just jumped away from the ground in time to avoid getting caged; they were unable to see their opponent but had figured out that he was underneath the ground using it as camouflage and a weapon.

"Who are you! Show yourself you coward!" shouted Gai whilst landing the branch of a tree trying to stay elevated from the ground.

A manic laughter filled the clearing which Maaya knew she had heard somewhere before but she just couldn't think who.

The tree which Gai had landed on suddenly began to move and reveal that it was actually an illusion, it wasn't a tree at all, it had been replaced with stone, which wrapped itself around Gai constricting him and binding him tightly. The only one left was Kakashi who had by now activated his sharingan and was trying to pin point his opponent.

All of a sudden a large figure grabbed a hold of him from behind and threw him hard against the ground, and on impact the ground formed itself around him, leaving Kakashi cursing himself for being careless and for being unable to foresee this attack, however in the back of his mind he knew that Maaya was watching this happen and was waiting for the right moment to step in.

The genin struggled as they watched their sensei's get captured; they instantly knew that they were up against someone extremely powerful. They didn't know what to do except hope that their sensei's had a good plan to get them out of this.

"Who are you and what do you want?" said Kakashi calmly as possible.

"All I want is some information," said the outline of the figure which was still clouded with dust, "like, where may I find Maaya?"

"We'll never tell you," shouted an outraged Gai, "you're the guy who beat up that other contestant too, aren't you!"

The same manic laughter again boomed throughout the forest, "Yes I am, and what are you going to do about it? I guess since you're not going to even tell me anything then I might as well kill you right now." The figure approached them slowly whilst holding a weapon with both hands.

The figure approached the genin first, "I think I'll kill the little punks first and then I'll deal with you guys." He raised his weapon and was ready to bring it crashing down onto the kids, until out of no where a kunai flew out and hit the figure in the right arm causing his control on his weapon to fail and dropping it onto the ground he shouted, "Who the hell did that?"

Maaya jumped down from the tree branch and landed in front of the figure, she knew who it was once he had spoke, "You know you'll get disqualified from the Jonin exams for attacking the konoha shinobi, don't you Kappa?"

Maaya stood in between the infamous rock ninja Kappa Hingra and the konoha ninjas, ready to fight.


	16. Chapter 16

Disclaimer; I do not own any of the naruto characters although I wish I did. )

Read and review

Author notes: _Thoughts_

_**Flashbacks**_

"So you've finally showed up, you have no idea how long I've waited for this moment." Said the demented rock ninja with a smirk across his face.

"You've been waiting for me to beat you?" countered Maaya obviously making Kappa angry by talking back to him.

He was red in the face now, and said through gritted teeth, "Shut up, I'll show you who is the strongest and then I'll kill your little friends."

With that he turned to dust and melted into the ground, performing his jutsu, "Watch out, he'll attack you from below!" shouted Kakashi, hoping that she wouldn't get caught with the same attack that had trapped them.

"Don't worry I know how to deal with this," she said smirking, "but first I'll help you guys out a little." She raised her arm and pulled on the invisible string which she had secretly wrapped around each casing on each person when Kappa was giving his little speech, instantly the konoha ninjas were freed and they had jumped into the trees away from the ground.

Kappa's laugh rang out of no where, "This fight is between you and me, but if you insist on bringing them into it then I'll just have to kill them too."

"Don't worry they were just leaving." Said Maaya coolly, she was going to deal with Kappa Hingra and no one would be there to stop her, she directed her attention to Kakashi and the others, "go back to the village and inform Tsunade to disqualify Kappa Hingra from the exams."

"We can't leave you to fight him alone!" shouted Gai.

"Don't worry, I'll be fine, it'll be better if you guys left, if you stayed here then you might get hurt." Said Maaya confidently, Kakashi knew that she could take him on but he was still a little apprehensive about leaving her here without any backup, or without any method of stopping her from killing him.

"You're not allowed to kill him." Said Kakashi calmly causing Gai to look at him in shock.

"You can't be serious about letting her stay by herself to fight him!" shouted Gai.

"Don't you remember the day we first met her, she took us all out within 5 minutes." Said Kakashi, his eyes staring at Maaya's back, who was concentrating on locating her opponent.

"Thank you for your trust, and I won't kill him, I'll just drag his ass back to konoha." Said Maaya.

"Be careful." Said Kakashi and he disappeared dragging his pupils and Gai with him, Gai's students followed them reluctantly, unsure that it was wise to leave Maaya alone with such a high level shinobi which had disabled all of them without their knowledge.

* * *

Maaya stood trying to feel the chakra of Kappa Hingra, it was hard to pin point his location since the whole ground of which she was standing on was filled with his chakra.

Suddenly a hand burst out from the ground grabbed her ankle from below, "You shouldn't be so confident that you'll beat me." Maaya didn't even flinch instead she smiled and the ankle that Kappa held disappeared in a puff of smoke, it had been a clone. Kappa was caught off guard and it was now the perfect opportunity to attack him, Maaya collected a large ball of chakra in her hand and fired it at Kappa's hand which was still sticking out of the ground.

Kappa avoided the attack; instead the chakra that Maaya had fired created a massive hole in the ground, the attack had given away Maaya's location in the trees, Kappa sent a lot of rock flying in that direction causing the trees the snap and fall.

Maaya was no where to be seen, until she came charging at Kappa and kicked him around the head and sending him flying into a large rock. The rock absorbed the impact and Kappa used this to his advantaged and dissolved into the rock.

Maaya had just made a crucial mistake, she should have known that kappa was strongest when he was near the ground, but of course she now knew how to weaken him, she just had to get him away from the ground.

Then all of a sudden Kappa appeared behind Maaya and threw a punch and knocked her into the trees, which wasn't the most comfortable way to break a fall. The trees fell under the weight of the punch that kappa had thrown and dust and dirt was left suspended in the air as an aftermath.

Kappa laughed as Maaya picked herself up, "I must admit, you are quite strong, any other person would have not been able to get up after a punch like that." He then disappeared again into the earth, and reappeared next to Maaya ready to land another hit, but this time Maaya dodged it and threw a hefty punch into Kappa's gut sending him flying into the air.

Maaya seized her this opportunity and jumped into the air as well, landing as many punches and kicks on Kappa as she would be able to until she finally thought it was enough and grabbed him and threw him back down to earth with a loud bang which shook the ground and echoed through the forest.

Maaya landed gently and said "are you ready to give up?" it was a serious question, she didn't really want to kill him and of course if she did then she may also be disqualified from the jonin exams.

"I'd rather die!" Kappa shouted and got up weakly, he had been injured tremendously since Maaya's punches were even stronger than his.

* * *

Meanwhile, Naruto was in disbelief that Kakashi-sensei had just left Maaya-san to fight on her own. Kakashi was still dragging him by the scuff of his neck.

"Kakashi-sensei let me go! We have to go back, we can't let Maaya-san fight him on her own!" shouted Naruto.

"Naruto is right, Kakashi," said Gai, "what if Maaya-Chan gets hurt, you know what he wants, and he won't hesitate to kill her, you might not care about her but I do!"

"Don't you dare say that I don't care about her!" Kakashi shouted back, "what if we got in her way and distracted her and she got hurt because of us!"

Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke had never seen their sensei lose his temper like this.

"What if she gets hurt anyway? What then?" said Gai.

Kakashi looked as though he was thinking hard, he didn't know what to do, he didn't want to leave Maaya but at the same time didn't want to get in her way and cause something bad to happen, he remembered when they had first stumbled across her training and she had got hurt because they had distracted her. But Gai had a point, there was always the 'what if' of Maaya needing their help and if they left then she would be all alone.

"We have to go back." Said Gai ending the conversation.

Suddenly a loud bang echoed throughout the forests and the ground shook, it had come from Maaya's direction, fearing the worst Kakashi quickly formed a plan.

"Sakura go back to the village and tell the Hokage to send backup, we'll go back and try to stall for time until they get here." Said Kakashi.

"TenTen go with Sakura." Said Gai, knowing that Kakashi had sent his weakest student away to keep her from harm, so he did the same.

TenTen and Sakura left immediately and Kakashi, Gai and the rest of the genins ran quickly towards Maaya and the rock ninja. They reached the battle within minutes, seeing a very rough looking Kappa throwing punches at Maaya who dodged them with ease, then when she got close enough to her opponent, she caught him in the back using her elbow to knock him onto the floor.

Kappa was practically out of chakra but was still fighting and not staying down when Maaya hit him.

"I don't think Maaya-san needs any help," said Naruto and then jumped out into the clearing, "Maaya-san you're so cool!"

"What the-!" said Maaya who turned around to see Naruto and the rest of the gang, "I thought you guys were going back to konoha."

"We heard bangs, we had to come back and make sure you were okay." Said Naruto.

Kappa saw his opportunity; if he couldn't kill Maaya then he would at least hurt the ones she cared about. He sent his remaining chakra into one last attack and aimed it at Naruto. It was so sudden and unexpected that Naruto didn't have the time to move when hundreds of boulders came soaring at him from out of nowhere.

He closed his eyes and waited for the impact, but it never came. He looked up to see Maaya in front of him blocking the attack. When it had finished Maaya didn't even flinch, her hands filled with chakra and she pressed them into the ground causing a massive earthquake and aiming the shock at Kappa. The ground moulded around the rock ninja's body and trapping him and immobilising him from any further attack.

Naruto looked up at Maaya, "Maaya-san are you hurt?"

"I think I'll be fine, are you okay?" she said whilst Naruto got up and checked himself for any injuries.

"Yeah I'm great! Maaya-san you were so cool! He was like…. And you were like…. And then that and then this… and you are so cool!"

Kakashi and Gai approached her, "are you sure you're alright?" asked Kakashi.

Maaya nodded, "just a little tired."

They looked at her, her clothes were a little torn but there didn't look like there was a scratch on her, just like the time Kakashi had hit her with his fire jutsu. A rustle in the trees above caught their attention.

"Hey Kakashi, Gai," said one of the jonin which Tsunade had sent as backup, within the group Sakura and TenTen stood, "we heard you needed backup but it looks like the fights over, could have at least saved some for us." It was the referee that had been present in the first rounds of the jonin exams, and he still had the toothpick in his mouth.

He turned to Maaya and said, "Shame that I missed the match with you and that dude," he gestured towards the rock which encased Kappa Hingra, who was now unconscious, "I was looking forward to it, I'm Genma Shiranui." He held out his hand which Maaya took and shook, "you can release your jutsu now, and we'll take it from here."

Maaya nodded and made a few hand seals which caused the rock holding Kappa to release and melt back into the ground. She sighed with relief at the thought that she could finally relax now, she had sustained injuries during the fight that she had not let show but they were now starting to weaken her, she just felt so tired.

Once she had released the jutsu her knees gave way and her body collapsed, she remembered thinking that it was strange that she didn't hit the ground; she looked up through dazed eyes and saw Kakashi who was supporting her weight with his arms and said, "I think I just need to lie down."

"We're taking you to the hospital." Said Kakashi firmly.

"But I'm fine, I just need to rest and I don't like hospitals." She tried to struggle out of his grip but he wasn't letting her go.

"You're not fine, you're hurt! And I don't care what you say because I'm taking you to the hospital anyway." He said in a tone with signalled that it was the end of the conversation and that he wasn't going to change his mind.

Maaya was hit by another wave of dizziness and her eyes closed plunging her into darkness, the last thing she remembered was Kakashi looking down at her with a worried eye as he jumped from tree to tree hurrying back to the village.


	17. Chapter 17

Disclaimer; I do not own any of the naruto characters although I wish I did. )

Read and review

Author notes: _Thoughts_

_**Flashbacks**_

The first thing Maaya saw when she opened her eyes were a white ceiling and white walls. She sat up slowly and realised that she was also sleeping in a white bed, it was the Konoha hospital. Maaya rubbed her eyes and looked around the room, flesh flowers in a small vase on her bedside table next to a clock which said that it was 4:00am.

She looked around the room, and saw something unexpected, someone unexpected. Kakashi sat in one corner of the room, slumped down in a wooden chair, eye closed and seemingly asleep. Maaya shook her head and tried to remember what happened, and how she had got here, and then she remembered that it was Kakashi who caught her, and it was he who took her to the hospital, and now he had stayed with her whilst she was unconscious, she smiled at the thought.

Her stomach grumbled, she was starving, so she got out of bed and made her way over to Kakashi where she placed a blanket over him, and went out of the room in search for food.

* * *

Kakashi woke up feeling as if someone had been watching him, and without opening his eyes he yawned. It had been 3 days since he witnessed Maaya collapsing in his arms and he had been by her side since then.

He had thought that Tsunade could have healed her but it seemed that all she could do was heal the injuries caused by Kappa but since Maaya used up too much chakra whilst fighting, it was determined that she probably collapsed from exhaustion and the best thing she could do was sleep it off.

Many people had visited her when she had been asleep; his students had come by once a day, bringing small things like flowers. Naruto feeling especially guilty since it was Kappa's attack that Maaya had blocked which had caused the most injuries. Sasuke said little but Kakashi could tell that he admired Maaya for the way she fought and her strength.

Gai and his students drop by once in a while too, Gai bought chocolate and roses for Maaya just in case she woke up, and was more disappointed each day when she didn't. Lee felt his sensei's pain and Neji and TenTen had been surprised to see their sensei in such a depressed mood, he hadn't done the nice guy pose for the past 3 days.

The word had reach Izumo and Kotetsu within hours of her being bought to the hospital; they had burst into Maaya's room demanding to see her, outraged that they hadn't been informed earlier as they were her best friends. Janika and Mattike had burst into the room a few minutes after Izumo and Kotetsu, Mattike was silent as usual showing hardly any emotion. Janika, on the other hand, was extremely upset, when he first saw her, he reach to smooth her hair away from her face.

"_**What happened to that stupid rock ninja?" Janika said through gritted teeth. **_

"_**He's been disqualified from the jonin exams and been placed in the Konoha prisons." Said Kakashi, the sight of Janika's hand which was now stroking Maaya's cheek angered him.**_

"_**They should have killed him." Said Mattike from the corner.**_

**_Janika and Mattike was silent after that, Kakashi could sense that all the chunin blamed themselves for not being able to protect Maaya, after all, it seemed extremely unfair that Kappa Hingra had chosen to go after Maaya above all others._**

After the second day and Maaya hadn't woken up, Gai had said something rather stupid to Kakashi. Gai was concerned that Maaya wouldn't wake up in time for the summer festival, and all Kakashi could think about was, that he didn't care who she went to the summer festival with, just as long as she woke up and was happy.

He hadn't been able to sleep for the past 3 days, he sat in Maaya's room and watched her, she looked so peaceful and beautiful, but he missed her smiled, and the way she got angry when someone ruffled her hair or teased her.

He heard a noise, a sort of shuffling of footsteps come into the room, he kept his eyes closed and pretended to be asleep thinking that it was the nurse. The hospital staffs has been trying to kick him out since he didn't look too good at the moment and thought it would be the best if he went home and got some sleep. Yet Kakashi couldn't do that, he wanted Maaya to wake up to see the face of someone she knew and not some strange room all alone.

He heard the shuffling move towards the bed and then a rustling of boxes, the person was rummaging through Maaya's gifts, and then he heard the person's voice.

"I wonder where my clothes are…" it was just a faint whisper but he knew who's voice it was, Kakashi opened his eye to see Maaya rummaging through the closet at the far wall of the room. She was unaware that Kakashi was awake; he watched as she pulled out her clothes and smiled as she inspected them. She turned around and was surprised to see Kakashi staring back at her.

She smiled and said, "I'm sorry that I woke you, you don't look so good, and you know you didn't have to stay with me all night." She came over to where Kakashi was sat and placed a gentle hand on his forehead sliding her hand underneath his forehead protector, "I think you have a fever."

He was so surprised, it must be a dream, and it seemed incredulous that she would be awake and walking around like this as if nothing had happened. He reached for her waist and pulled her onto him placing her in his lap hugging her, both sat on the chair.

He took in her scent and her warmth, and smiled at the thought that she was actually real. "I'm so glad you're okay." He whispered against her hair.

"I'm fine, I'm actually more worried about you," she said turning around to look at him, her hand gently trace the bags under his exposed eye, "you seem tired, you should go back to sleep, thank you for staying with me throughout the night." And she gave him a little kiss on the cheek, making him turn bright red, before getting up from Kakashi's lap and the chair.

"Well after 2 nights here, 1 more couldn't hurt." Joked Kakashi.

"Why have you been here for so long?" asked Maaya.

"You've been asleep for 3 days."

Maaya laughed and didn't say anything until she turned around to see Kakashi looking incredibly serious, "You're kidding, right?"

"No, you've been asleep since Tuesday, and today's Friday." Said Kakashi laughing a little now at the shocked look on Maaya's face, he couldn't help but think of how much he had missed her.

"OH NO! I've missed so much training!" this cause Kakashi to laugh, "It's not funny! Wait… have you been here since?"

Kakashi looked a little embarrassed and blushed slightly, "Yeah, I didn't want you to wake up alone."

Maaya looked up at him since he was now standing, and came closer to him and gave him a hug, "Thank you, you're too good to me." She felt Kakashi's arms wrap around her and returned the hug. After a while she broke the hug and looked at the room, and her eyes settled on a little table crammed full of flowers, chocolates and get well soon cards.

She picked up a card, it was pink and frilly; it was obvious that it was from Sakura, Naruto also had a card, and it had a cute little picture on the front of it. Maaya was surprised to find a card from Sasuke which just had the words "get well soon" written on the front but it was lovely all the same.

Maaya turned around to see Kakashi staring at her as she inspected his genin's card. "I suppose you had to bribe them to get these." She laughed whilst Kakashi smiled back but stayed quiet. She looked at the flowers that Izumo and Kotetsu sent, and then at the roses that Janika and Gai had sent.

"I guess I should get changed and get out of here." Said Maaya.

Kakashi stared at her, and began getting annoyed, he had realised that Maaya had a knack for lying about being alright, she had done it twice now and on both occasions she had actually been hurt.

"You're not going anywhere until the doctor says you can leave." Said Kakashi.

"But I'm fine."

"I get nervous when you say that, because it's not true." Kakashi walked over to Maaya and led her over to the bed and made her sit by placing his hands on her shoulders and gently applying pressure.

"But this time I mean it."

He gave her a 'yeah right' look, and continued to tuck her into the bed by pulling the blanket over her legs because she was sat upright in the bed with her back against the wall.

She looked up at him as he fidgeted with her pillow, she honestly didn't think that he would be this worried or this annoyed and angry at her for lying about her health.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to lie," she said looking at her lap, "I just didn't want anyone to worry about me and I'm fine now, are you angry at me?"

Kakashi sighed and with one hand he swept Maaya's hair behind her ear causing her to look back up at him. "I'm not angry, just don't do it again." He smiled at her.

"So does that mean I can get out of here now?" she said hopefully.

"No."

Maaya sighed and watched Kakashi sit on the end of the bed whilst smiling at her. She couldn't get too annoyed with him when he looked at her in that way, so she just laid back down in the bed and rested her head on the pillow and yawned.

"Goodnight Kakashi-kun." And she went back to sleep considering that she wasn't allowed to get up.

* * *

Voices pulled Maaya away from her sleep and back into the morning, it was the voices of Sakura, Naruto, Lee and Gai and of course Kakashi who was trying to hush the others as they were talking loudly.

"Shhhhh, don't talk so loudly, you'll wake Maaya-san." Hushed Kakashi.

"Kakashi, my eternal rival, I am not understanding you, we want Maaya-Chan to wake up," Gai sounded confused, "maybe you should go home and get some rest, you must be delusional."

"Kakashi-sensei, Gai-sensei is right, if we talk louder then Maaya-san might wake up." Said Naruto with his weird logic.

It was obvious that Kakashi hadn't told them that she was awake yet, she yawned a little and sat up on the bed, watching Gai and Kakashi argue, no one seemed to notice that she was awake, so she just sat there watching the scene for a few minutes.

Maaya suddenly realised that she was extremely hungry; her search earlier on in the morning had not been successful and her stomach began to rumble quite loudly. Everyone turned to look in her direction, seemingly surprised to see her awake.

"Good morning everyone," and then she turned to Kakashi, "when is the doctor coming? I want to get out of here and get something to eat."

"Maaya-Chan you're awake!" said Gai ready to pounce on her with a hug but was stopped by Kakashi who held him back by holding on to his jacket.

"Maaya-san has just woken up, you don't want to injure her with your hug's Gai." said Kakashi, with the alternative agenda of not wanting Gai to touch Maaya.

"You're right, I don't want to hurt Maaya-Chan." Said Gai.

Naruto ignored his sensei's advice and jumped onto Maaya's bed and gave her a massive hug, "I'm so glad you're alright Maaya-san. You don't know how worried we've all been, especially Kakashi-sensei, he stayed with you all the time you were asleep and he hasn't even touch his Icha Icha paradise books since you've been here."

It seemed Naruto was so excited that he forgot how to that breaths while speaking. Kakashi shook his head at Naruto's behaviour and Sakura was shaking her fist, it was Lee who dragged Naruto away from her.

"I apologize for Naruto's behaviour Maaya-san; we've all been worried about you, especially Gai-sensei. He has not done his nice guy pose in 3 days because he was so worried about you." Said Lee trying to promote his sensei, just like the way Naruto had tried to advertise his.

Maaya looked from one jonin to the other, and said, "I am sorry that I made Gai-san and Kakashi-kun worry so much, and I'm also very glad to see that you guys are all alright."

Sakura and Sasuke were the only ones who noticed the 'kun' which Maaya had added on the end on Kakashi-sensei's name, this was definitely a good sign.

The doctor arrived soon after, "Maaya-san, I'm very glad to see that you are awake, Kakashi-san told me that you woke up earlier this morning, how are you feeling now?"

Before Maaya could answer, Gai had erupted with anger. "Maaya-Chan woke up early this morning? Why didn't you tell me? Why didn't you come find me?" He Yelled.

"I didn't want to leave Maaya-san all alone." Countered Kakashi.

"Please this is a hospital you cannot shout here, you'll wake the patience's. Now please wait outside while I give Maaya-san a check up." Said the doctor shooing the crew out of the door and then turned smiling at Maaya.

After a few minutes, theninjas outside Maaya's room watched the doctor come out, andthe doctordirected his speech to Kakashi.

"She'll be fine now, but just to make sure, don't let her do any training for the rest of the day." The doctor said.

"Alright, I'll take care of her." said Kakashi, "Thanks."

"She'll be right out; she said she needed to change."

They watched the doctor walk away and waited for Maaya to come out. Which was taking a while, and Naruto was getting impatience.

"When is Maaya-san coming out? She's taking ages." Moaned Naruto.

"It's a common known fact that women take too long to get ready." Said Lee, whilst Naruto nodded along, this got them both a hard punch in the head from Sakura who was standing up for women-kind.

Soon Maaya stepped out of the room, in the clothes she had worn 3 days ago when she fought against Kappa Hingra. Her clothes looked a little worn and torn but she had a refreshed smiled on her face.

"Izumo and Kotetsu will be glad to see you." Said Kakashi, "they were pretty worried about you."

"They were? I should go see them. Do you know where they are?" Maaya asked.

"We'll go find them now." Said Kakashi, he took Maaya's hand and steered her out of the hospital before Gai could protest or argue.

Maaya felt his hand enclose hers and it felt nice, more than nice. Things just seemed right when he was near her; she looked up at Kakashi and saw that he was staring down at her. Maaya blushed and then smiled causing Kakashi to grin back and give her hand a little squeeze.

They were heading towards the stadium where the contestants of the exam were designated train; it was the most common place to find Izumo and Kotetsu. As they walked Naruto and Lee argued and Gai nattered about anything trying to get Maaya's attention but it wasn't working.

When they reached the stadium, they stood in the doorway staring at an unusual scene. Izumo and Kotetsu was present along with Janika and Mattike, but they weren't training, it was almost noon and Maaya knew that by this time all of them was usually sweaty and exhausted from training, but at this moment they were sat on the floor, in silence looking as if they hadn't even broken a sweat all morning.

Maaya was confused, "are they alright?"

Kakashi was just as shocked, "I'm not sure, let's go check it out."

They all made there way over to the 4 chunins, when they approached they didn't even look up, it was as if they didn't notice them. Maaya was the first to speak to them.

"What's wrong you guys?" she said with concern.

They didn't look up, they seemed deep in thought, and it was Izumo who spoke up, "Why did it have to be her? Why couldn't he have gone after one of us instead?" They seemed like rhetorical questions to Maaya.

"Are they talking about me?" whispered Maaya to Kakashi who nodded in response, Maaya just stared at the chunin and smiled, it was sweet that they were worried about her.

"Well, maybe he went after me because I'm the greatest." Joked Maaya, trying to lighten the mood a little.

"What?" said Izumo, who then looked up to see Maaya hand in hand with Kakashi smiling down at them, Kakashi laughed a little at Maaya's comment as if he didn't believe any of it, which caused Maaya to nudge his a little with her elbow yet she moved closer to him as she did it.

She looked down at them again; they looked like they've seen a ghost. "Jeez guys! I know I look rough but I just got out of hospital this morning, so stop staring at me like that!" she laughed.

They shook off their surprise and their faces were filled with relief instead of shock and horror. Within seconds they all pounced on her and hugged her making sure that she was real. Throughout all this chaos Maaya still had Kakashi's hand to hang on to, although it was hard to keep a hold of it when 4 grown men had jumped on you.

They laughed and joked as if nothing had happened, and everything was normal again.

* * *

Watching them from the shadows lurked the figure of Zakira Yamuri, her cold eyes burned with hatred and frustration at the sight of Maaya alive and well. The grass ninja had hoped that Maaya would stay in her unconscious state until the next round in the exams; it was too bad that Kappa Hingra hadn't killed her.

_**Zakira stood with her back to the rock ninja Kappa, who had been told to meet her there. They stood in silence for a little while, until the impatient Kappa started to get angry and annoyed. **_

"**_Why did you tell me to meet you here if you're not going to say anything!" Said Kappa threateningly, "you said that you had something important to tell me."_**

_**Zakira smirked, "I do have something important to tell you, information which you'd be grateful to get." **_

"_**Stop stalling and tell me now!" **_

"_**I know that you were the person who almost killed other chunin in the exams." Zakira said calmly, "and I know that you want to get revenge on that girl, Maaya Hayashi." **_

"_**Is that all you're going to say?" **_

"_**I have a proposition for you. I know where Maaya trains, all I want you to do is find her and make it impossible for her to compete in the exams."**_

"_**And why are you going to give me this information? What's in it for you?" **_

"_**Well, it's a mutual gain, we both get what we want, you get revenge and I get to see someone else knocked out of the exams."**_

_**Kappa grinned and thought about the deal, he had been itching to fight Maaya ever since the day of the first rounds but he hadn't been able to find her. Now it was like having it handed to his on a silver plate.**_

"_**You've got my attention, tell me where she is and I'll make sure she won't be doing anymore fighting for the rest of her life." **_

Zakira cursed Kappa when she found out that Kappa had been caught and was now in prison, and that Maaya was still alive, with only the slight chance that she would not be able to participate in the exams.

Now she had to take care of it by herself. She knew that she wouldn't be able to beat Maaya head on, but Zakira was sneakier than that. She had been stalking Maaya ever since she had heard of Kappa's failure, and it was clear that there was something going on between the silver hair jonin with the mask and Maaya. Zakira could use this information to her advantage; if she couldn't attack Maaya head on then she would attack her mentally and emotionally instead of physically.

Sabotaging Maaya's relationship with Kakashi was going to be easy; Zakira herself was a very beautiful woman, which most men would give a limb if she would even look in their direction.

Zakira watched Maaya grin as she held Kakashi's hand, and she thought to herself that Maaya Hayashi would be easy to break.


	18. note from author

As you can see I've deleted chapters 18-20 I'm just going to redo them so it'll be easier for me to carry on the story , although I have been slacking off loads, anyway I hope you will like the new chapters I come up with and sorry for taking so long to update …


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